


What An Unlovely Way To Say You Care

by SereneCalamity



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Brief relationship between Cedric Diggory/Harry potter, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Pining, Rating will go up, Sexual Content, Strangers to Lovers, more tags to come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2019-10-23 06:31:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 25,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17678255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneCalamity/pseuds/SereneCalamity
Summary: Harry was really looking forward to senior year being over and getting away from a certain blonde.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright. So when I started this one, I knew it was going to be a bit longer, I thought maybe around 10k. Except then I got to 25k and I wasn't done, so I've had to split it into three or four chapters rather than just a oneshot. Haha. I'm also not super happy with how this turned out, Harry kind of...Came out a bit different from what I expected. But, oh well, here we go.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the title, which comes from Nobody Wins by the Veronicas.

Harry Potter pursed his lips together as he glanced across the courtyard. Hermione Granger had her head buried in a book and Ron Weasley was splitting his time between staring toward the field where the cheerleaders were practicing, and digging into the nachoes that he had decided to take a chance on from the cafeteria. Either way, neither of his best friends were paying any attention to him, which meant that he was free to stare across the courtyard to where Draco Malfoy was standing with his friends.

How the hell did the guy never tan?

It was just coming to the end of summer, a brand new school year, and he was still ridiculously pale.

His hair had grown out since Harry had last seen him, since school ended a few months ago, and it kept flopping forward, over his forehead, getting in the way of his eyes, and Harry felt annoyance tug at his stomach at the fact that he wasn't the only one who had noticed.

Pansy Parkinson seemed to be finding any excuse she could to reach out and touch it, tangling her fingers through the floppy strands and pushing it away from his face.

 _Harry_  wanted to do that.

 _Harry_  wanted to be the one climbing all over him and acting as though he had every right to be touching his face and playing with his hair.

But, no.

No.

Instead, he was on the opposite side of the courtyard, mooning over one of the biggest twats in their school as though the past year hadn't happened.

"Harry," Hermione's voice was quiet and Harry's head snapped to the side, in an attempt to hide the fact that he had just been staring at the blonde. Hermione's expression was gentle and knowing as she reached out a hand to touch his arm. "You can't keep doing this to yourself. It's not fair." Harry sighed, because he knew that she was right, it was just hard to act as though everything was okay. "You don't have to be okay," she continued, as though she knew everything that was going through his head, an uncanny habit of hers. "But you can't torture yourself." Harry managed a small smile and Hermione gave his arm a comforting squeeze.

"What's this about?" Ron asked, twisting his head to look at them, as though only just realizing that they had been talking.

" _Nothing_ , Ron," Hermione sniffed out before going back to her book. Ron sent Harry a quizzical look but then lost interest quickly and went back to staring at Lavender Brown, the captain of the cheerleading squad, who was doing a row of perfect back flips, her long legs flying. "You know you're gross, right?" Hermione snipped at Ron, who didn't even bother looking at her, just pulled the fingers and went right on staring.

It didn't take much to fall back into the normal routine of school, although Harry was very glad that this was going to be their last year. He and Ron had a plan to go on a trip once they graduated, travel around Europe and make their way over to America, work and explore for a year before coming back to go to University. Of course, Hermione was going straight to university, probably to do twelve degrees at the same time. Harry absolutely adored Hermione but she was very intense, always had been, and that had been really good for the past year and for this year in their final years of school, keeping Harry and Ron up to date with their homework and not wasting away their time constantly, but he was looking forward to a break from having to study so hard.

Plus, his Uncle Sirius had said that his parents would have wanted him to take a year off, to have some fun after school and to go out and explore the world, so Harry felt confident in his decision.

And now...He was even more certain, because he was going to need a  _big_  distraction to push down all these feelings that he had for Draco.

It was a few months into the school year, just before they were about to break up for the autumn holiday and people were packing up when Cedric Diggory came up to Harry. He was Head Boy, so he was one of the few in the boarding school who got a room to himself, and he also wasn't assigned to Harry's dorm, so it was a bit strange for him to be there.

"Hey, Harry," Cedric said with an adorable half smile. Harry was just  _one_  of the many people in the school who had had a crush on Cedric at some point or another, and so him showing up  _just_  to see him made his cheeks redden a little.

"Hey, Cedric," Harry gave him a curious smile.

"I was wondering if you were heading back to Chelsea? That's...That's where you live, right?" Cedric asked, looking a little nervous, especially when Harry's eyebrows rose.

"Uh, y-yeah. Yeah, I do. A-and I am," Harry stammered and Cedric grinned, licking his lips quickly before continuing.

"I was wondering if you wanted to sit together on the train there?" Cedric asked and Harry's eyes widened, and he was obviously quiet for a while because Cedric's smile started fading and then there was a pointed cough from behind him, from where Ron was pretending to be packing his bag.

"Y-yes! Yes, that sounds...Fun," Harry managed to get out, and then Cedric's smile returned full force and Harry grinned, although there were butterflies flooding his stomach, feeling a little uncertain but still happy with the turn of events.

"Great, I'll see you there?" Cedric asked and Harry nodded. Cedric waved awkwardly at Ron before smiling once more at Harry and then leaving them. Harry turned around to face his roommate and one of his best friends and gave him a quizzical look.

"I think you just got asked on a date," Ron said with a grin. "You dog." Harry rolled his eyes, but he kind of agreed with Ron—which didn't happen  _too_ often. They finished packing their things and then headed downstairs, Ron talking about how he and Lavender had plans to meet up in the first week, which Harry wasn't going to tell Hermione, because that wasn't something he wanted to get in the middle of. There were a couple of buses outside the school to take students to the train station, although there were also some parents there to pick up their children, and there were two long, black stretch limos.

And Draco was in front of one of them.

He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a maroon sweatshirt that clung to his slim figure and his long arms. His hair was even longer and it was catching in the breeze, and Harry swallowed hard as Draco's head tilted to the side as though he could sense someone looking at him. He searched the crowds of students around him, skimming over his group of friends—the 'rich kids' who were heading toward Wiltshire—and then over a bunch of first year students who were all squealing and bouncing, excited about going home, before they met Harry's.

Draco's eyes widened and his lips parted, as though surprised that Harry was watching him. Harry knew that he should look away, that he should distract himself, maybe strike up a conversation with Ron, but he didn't. He just kept on looking at Draco, and even with the distance between them, he could see the way Draco's expression shifted, from the neutral, almost bored expression if had been before, to the softer, almost sad one that it was now.

"Harry?" Cedric's voice was suddenly so close to him, and it jerked Harry's attention away from Draco, his head whipping to the side. "You ready?"

"I'll see you next week, right, Harry?" Ron asked hopefully as he began backing toward his own bus, to take him to a train that would take him to his family home in Devon.

"Yeah, I'll be there on Thursday!" Harry called out so Ron could hear him, and Ron smiled widely and waved before turning around, leaving Harry and Cedric alone. Harry wanted to look over his shoulder, back in the direction of where Draco had been, but he forced himself not to. "Let's go," he said to Cedric with a smile, and Cedric grinned back.

Things with Cedric were...Easy.

They were comfortable. It was kind of like being with Ron and Hermione.

His godfather and guardian, Sirius Black—who he just called Uncle Sirius—liked Cedric as well, which was good, because they spent almost every day together Harry left to go to the Weasley's. Some of the time they had hung out at Harry's home, but Cedric had quite a social life, and he took Harry out to a few underground music gigs where they had to use fake ID's to get in—Cedric 'knew a guy' who got one for Harry quickly. He went out to the park with Cedric and a few of their friends, and so Harry decided to introduce Cedric to his tiny place that he and Sirius went to quite often which did incredible milkshakes.

Cedric kissed him on the Tuesday, two days before he left to go to the Weasley's. It was soft and sweet and Harry liked it, but it wasn't...It wasn't fireworks and sparks exploding over his skin like Draco.

But maybe that was a good thing.

Because Draco had just stopped talking to him and acted as though what they had had never happened.

So Harry decided that he wanted to give this a go, with Cedric.

Harry spent almost a week with the Weasley's, and Hermione came out as well for a few days, and there was a party on the Saturday night that they took a train to get to because it was at Seamus Finnigan's place. Cedric was texting him and send him snapchats and Lavender practically bounced on the fact that one of Ron's friends was in a 'relationship' and tried to push that agenda onto him, but it seemed as though Ron's attention was elsewhere.

On Hermione.

Who was looking beautiful—and probably the  _most_  clothed person at the party—in a pair of jeans and a flowery top that tied behind her neck and was missing half the back. She was also talking to Viktor Krum, an exchange student from Bulgaria, and laughing and tossing her hair and Harry was honestly happy for her, even if it was Ron that he felt a little bad for now.

The next morning, Harry woke up with a pounding hangover and a bunch of messages on his phone, and he cringed when he saw that he had been drunk texting Cedric.

Nothing bad, thankfully, but it did start getting a little sloppy and dirty near the end and he decided to deal with it later rather than apologize now while he felt as crappy as he did. He dragged himself out of the spare bedroom, where Hermione had shared his bed, and Ron was on the ground with a blanket tangled around his legs and a vivid penis draw on his face, reaching toward his mouth, and got himself down the the bathroom. He splashed water on his face and then went to the kitchen where Seamus, Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley were already crowded, all looking as bad as he did.

Harry got back into London on the Wednesday and Sirius picked him up from the train station. They went out for dinner and Sirius asked about a hundred questions about how things had gone at the Weasley's, even though he probably knew most things anyway, since he and Arthur Weasley worked for the same company, even if they were at different branches, and they were close friends.

Cedric asked to meet up, but Harry was tired from his trip, so he pushed it off until the next day. He fell asleep almost as soon as he got home, not even bothering to unpack. The next morning, he sorted out his clothes, most of them needing to get washed before he just put them back in a suitcase since he would be heading back to Hogwarts on the Sunday morning. Sirius had already left for work when Harry came down, which was normal, and Harry didn't bother eating before he was heading out the door, toward the bus to meet up with Cedric.

They did a lot more than kiss over the next few days, although Harry wasn't quite ready to go  _all_  the way with him, since he had only done that with one other person, and that person had been someone that he had strong feelings for. Cedric obviously had no problem with that, which made things easy, and there was some other party on Saturday that was a bit more upper class than the ones that Harry usually went to. It was at Fleur Delacour's parents apartment, apparently they were out of town, so she was throwing a back to school kind of bash.

Harry didn't know many people that were there, they weren't the people he usually hung out with, although Viktor was there, and he came over and talked to Harry for a bit, although he suspected that was just to ask about Hermione. He flicked off a text to her, telling her that Viktor had mentioned her, and that was when he heard a high pitched laugh that grated at his ear drums and was frustrating familiar.

Pansy.

He pursed his lips together as he saw the dark haired girl come into the apartment, already looking pretty drunk, with Blaise Zabini. He had managed to push down all thoughts of Draco pretty effectively over the holiday, although at night they were still there, at the edges of his dreams, but seeing his two best friends just brought things back full force.

So when Cedric asked if he wanted a drink, he took it, and then he took the next one, and the one after that. He played beer bong, paired up with Terry Bott, against Cedric and Viktor, and he got even more drunk, even though he really wasn't a fan of beer. Afterwards, Cedric pulled him into the dark kitchen, and it was clear that he was drunk as well from how flushed his cheeks were, and he sort of ushered Harry into a corner for pressing his lips against his. Harry liked how heavy and loose his body felt, and Cedric was a good kisser, swiping his tongue against the seam of his mouth before Harry parted his lips. Their tongues tangled together and Harry shuffled his feet a little before Cedric's less pressed between his, his thigh against where Harry was hard in his jeans.

Harry let out a moan, and he was panting, and he dropped his hand from where it had been gripping Cedric's shoulder and between their bodies, rubbing Cedric through his jeans. Cedric was making these breathy sounds that Harry  _liked_ , but couldn't help but think didn't sound  _right_ , they didn't sound like—

"Fucking hell!" There was the sound of shattering glass and a hiss that tore both of the teenagers apart, their wide eyes going to the entrance of the door where the sound had come from.

Draco.

When the hell had he gotten there?

Harry blinked, completely unsure of what to do, and he was glad that Cedric's body was in front of his, mainly sheltering him, and he leaned his weight against the bench as he stared at Draco. Draco's eyes flickered between him and Cedric once before settling completely on Harry, and the expression on his face was unrecognizable.

"Uh, Draco?" Cedric's words were a little stilted, but clear. "You think you could give us some privacy here, mate?" Harry blinked again, still feeling awkward. Draco's lips were parted, and there were shards of broken glass on the ground from the bottle he had dropped, but his attention was still on Harry. Cedric just looked confused, and he raised an eyebrow. "Draco?"

"Right," Draco muttered out, seeming to shake himself out of his awkward haze. "Right." He stood there for another few beats before suddenly whirling around and stalking off. Cedric turned back to Harry, but he seemed to be aware that the mood was broken and he pulled back, asking if he wanted to leave.

Harry  _did_ , but not with Cedric. At least, not in the way Cedric was implying.

It felt as though a bucket of cold water had been dumped over him, and the next morning as he was getting on the train, saying goodbye to Sirius, he was still trying to figure out what he was feeling.

The next few months at Hogwarts passed uneventfully, which was probably for the best. Things with Cedric were still happening, and even though it seemed as though everyone in the school knew that something was going on between them, there was nothing official. Cedric didn't ask for anything more than what they were doing, and Harry was relieved, because even though he really liked Cedric, he still wasn't certain that he liked Cedric as much as Cedric seemed to like him.

Hermione was very obviously disappointed, because she could see it when they were together, but she didn't say anything.

Ron was oblivious, completely wrapped up in his own world that was now completely focused on Hermione and her new relationship with Viktor.

Christmas and New Years came and went and Harry tried to focus on his classes. Chemistry was always his downfall, but Professor McGonagall had a soft spot for him and didn't mind spending extra time with him after class. Hermione was helpful as well, although her way of tutoring really didn't meld with him.

Draco had been the one who had really helped him last year, after they had first started  _bonding_ , but that really wasn't an option anymore. So he struggled through, with help from the Professor and from Hermione, and then also from Neville Longbottom, who had a lot more patience than Hermione. His other classes were all doing pretty well, and lacrosse season would be coming up soon, so he and Ron and some of the other guys who had been on the team last year were starting to practice out on the field after classes finished for the day, before the bells rang for dinner.

It was the day after Valentines Day when Cedric presented him with a single rose. It was cheesy but Harry had grinned because it was sweet. They weren't really seeing each other so much anymore, mainly just when they went home for long weekends, they would hang out and sometimes make out and get each other off, but it wasn't as...It wasn't written in stone, like it seemed to be heading last year.

Plus, Harry was pretty sure that Cedric had a thing for Cho, which Harry totally supported, because she was awesome, and if they both really liked each other, then they should go for it.

It was still nice that Cedric was still thinking of him, though.

But the day  _after_  that, two days after Valentines Day, there was a bouquet of daffodils—his favourite flowers because they reminded him of his mother, from perfume he had found, tied together with a red and gold ribbon—the Gryffindor house colours. Harry frowned down at them, running his finger up the long stems and had then pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Ron, to know if he knew anyone who had come by their room, but Ron was unhelpful, muttering about how he had followed Viktor and Hermione down to the back of the field.

Which was creepy.

Seriously, Harry was  _done_  with the pair of them.

He knew for a  _fact_  that Hermione was just fooling around with Viktor to wind up Ron.

She seemed to like him well enough, but not at all in the way Viktor liked her.

Kind of...Like Harry and Cedric, but Harry couldn't dwell on that right now.

The fact that the flowers were in his room, didn't really narrow things down. It wasn't as though their dorms were off limits to other houses or anything, and their rooms themselves were generally left wide open, so anyone _in_  their actual dorm could access their room at any time.

Harry frowned as he picked up the flowers, and then he shrugged, and buried his face in the daffodils, taking in a deep breath of their strong, incredible scent.

The following weekend, they were all in the common room. Seamus had smuggled in some bottles of cheap vodka that his older cousin had brought for him last weekend when he had gone home. Hermione was there— _not_  with Viktor, and Ron was there— _not_  with Lavender, and the pair of them were sitting pretty close to each other. Harry grinned when he saw Hermione flush as Ron's thigh pressed firmly against hers, and he returned his attention to where Seamus was playing pool with Dean Thomas and a couple of the others from the house were watching when Neville looked up from where he had been awkwardly flirting with Luna Lovegood.

"Hey, Harry? Did Draco find you the other day?" He asked. Harry felt his whole body jolt, and even though the question hadn't been asked particularly loud, it had drawn the attention of Ron and Hermione, both who looked over with a frown.

"Uh...No? When?" Harry asked, attempting to keep his voice even. Neville didn't notice anything off, but Luna tilted her head to the side, regarding him curiously.

"Last week, I totally forgot about it. I think...The Thursday or the Friday?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"Nah, he didn't," Harry mumbled, shaking his head, and Neville looked at him for a moment longer before shrugging again and then turning back to Luna. He started talking, but Luna kept on looking at him with that usual, gentle but knowing look of hers, for another long minute, before she looked back at Neville, shifting her attention back to the taller boy. Harry frowned down at the plastic cup in his hand, half filled with vodka and some weird grape soda, and then looked over at Hermione and Ron.

"Friday was when the daffodils were left in the your room," Hermione said gently, making sure to keep her voice quiet enough that no one else could hear. "Did you ever tell Draco you liked them?"

He did.

It had been on one of the  _very_  few occasions that Draco was in his room, it was over a weekend when most people had gone home, including Ron, and so Draco had come over and they had been making out and almost naked on his bed. Draco had flipped them over, wanting to go on top—which wasn't particularly surprising—and he had knocked a book that had been balancing on the corner of Harry's bedside table onto the ground. It had spilled open and the book mark had fallen out.

A pressed daffodil.

Draco had snorted in surprise as he reached down to pick it up, easing his thighs down so that his ass was pressed right over Harry's erection, and he had raised an eyebrow in question. Harry had tried to brush it off, but Draco had pushed it, teasing that a girl had given it to him.

It had completely ruined the mood for Harry to talk about his dead mother, and how one of the few things he remembered about her was the smell of daffodils, her favourite flower, and she had a perfume that she always wore that smelt like it—a perfume that had been half full when she had died, and he had found in her things when he had gone through them a few years ago. Draco had put the flower down—very gently—on the bedside table and wiggled down onto the bed with Harry, wrapping his arms around him tightly. Harry had been surprised, but relieved, and Draco had kissed his shoulder a few times and they had fallen asleep.

It had definitely been one of the fewer moments between them that soft and sweet.

"I did," Harry breathed out, his breath feeling as though it was physically blocking up his throat. He cleared his throat, threw back the rest of his drink and then got up and left the common room.

Part of him wanted to storm across the grounds to the Slytherin dorms, where he knew Draco was, because he hardly ever went home, except on holidays where the school actually shut down completely. But he stopped himself, because at the end of the day, Draco obviously hadn't wanted to see him. The flowers had been there when he had gotten back from playing a friendly game of lacrosse with some of the boys, which happened _every Friday_ , so when Draco had come by, he had  _known_  that Harry wouldn't be there.

Harry really didn't know if finding out that Draco had been the one to leave the flowers made him feel better or worse.

He was pretty sure it was  _worse_.

Because things like that just reminded him how sweet and caring he really could be, when he tried.

Harry went back to his and Ron's room, going straight to bed and turning to face the wall, away from where the bunch of daffodils were in a glass vase that Hermione had leant him on the bedside table.

Harry spent the next week avoiding Draco even more than usual. It wasn't as though he had been searching him out before, but now he made sure that he kept his eyes trained forward, or on his work if he was in a class with Draco, and when they were out lunch break, he would sit with his back to the courtyard or to the field, wherever Draco and his friends were, so that he couldn't watch him. Hermione tried to talk to him about it, but even though her intentions were good, Harry shut the subject down every time she tried to even broach it. Ron didn't try to talk about it, just asked if he wanted him to throw the flowers out, which Harry really didn't want, and so Ron had shrugged and moved on, knowing that this wasn't something that his best friend wanted to discuss.

The two week spring holidays came up, and Harry went home to Sirius. Cedric sat with him on the train back, and so did one of Cedric's friends, and when they got back to London, Cedric told Harry that he was going to ask Cho out on a date when she came into the city next week. Harry just grinned and nudged him with his elbow, because while he was going to miss the kissing and the other stuff that followed, he didn't like Cedric in the way that Cedric deserved to be liked, so he was happy for him.

Sirius had taken a few days off work to spend with him, and then surprised him with a trip to West Sussex, to the beach. One of the perks that came with his uncle's job was that there were holiday homes owned by the company that he could book in, and he had managed to get one out in West Wittering for three nights. The water wasn't warm enough for swimming, but they still spent a lot of time out on the beach, and Sirius asked him about school and Ron and Hermione, and then told him about work. Apparently his department had a big meeting coming up with one of the CEO's. There were lots of lay offs happening, and so they were all working twice as hard as usual.

Harry asked if Sirius had anything to worry about, and Sirius had just given him an easy smile, ruffling his hair like he had been doing since he was a little kid, and told him that even if things went in the worst way, they would be okay. Sirius and Harry's families were both filled with money, they just didn't show it off like so many did, and so financially they would be okay if Sirius lost his job. But Sirius  _liked_  his job and he liked working, which was more what Harry was meaning.

They didn't talk about it again, but Sirius truly didn't seem too worried, so Harry wasn't either.

Ron came into the city the day after they got back from the beach, and Harry got him a fake ID from the same guy that he had gotten his from with Cedric, and they went to a few bars in town. They got drunk and played pool and got back to Grimmauld Place stinking of beer. Sirius had rolled his eyes and muttered that at least they had the good sense to come back in an uber, and had made sure they both drank water and took painkillers before they went to sleep.

It turned out that Ron had drunk dialed Hermione while they were out, to Harry's amusement when his best friend had realized the next day. But it all turned out for the best, because it seemed as though Ron had admitted his love for her, and Hermione called him that afternoon to see if he had been telling the truth or if he had just been drunk.

Ron was bright red as he said that he  _did_  love her.

Harry was happy for him.

Ron stayed for another few nights, and then both of them packed up and took the train to the Weasley's. Harry was staying there until the holidays were over, and Hermione was going to be coming for the last weekend as well. Molly Weasley fussed over Harry when they got there, just like she always did, smoothing back his unruly hair and giving him a kiss on the forehead and then ushering him into the kitchen where she was baking her third lot of cookies. Ginny was helping her out, and she gave Harry a shy smile as he came over to give her a tight hug. Other than Ginny and Ron, the only other children still living at home were Fred and George Weasley, but they were working full time and weren't home until after dinner.

Arthur got home later that evening, looking tired but still giving his family a big, joyful smile when he saw them all around the table, giving them each a hug and a kiss, including Harry. He helped himself to dinner and joined the boisterous conversation around the table. It was later on that evening, when Harry was on the pull out stretch from underneath Rons bed, that Ron mentioned his dad had a lot going on at work.

It turned out the lay offs were affecting Arthur's branch as well, at work, and unlike the Black and the Potter families, they didn't come from family money, and Arthur's job was one that was definitely needed. Ron was clearly worried, and Harry felt bad for his friend. They were just about to go to sleep when Ron spoke again.

"Fucking Malfoy," he muttered. Harry frowned into the darkness of the bedroom.

"What's Draco got to do with this?" He asked, hating the way his stomach jumped when he said the boys name out loud.

"Draco?" Ron sounded confused. "No, Lucius, his father. He's one of the CEO's of the company. He's the one that's deciding that outsourcing jobs is cheaper and  _better_  than keeping it all local. That's the reason that there's so many lay offs happening." Harry's whole body stiffened at that news. "You...You didn't know?" Ron asked and Harry shook his head. Ron wouldn't have been able to see the gesture in the dark, but he must have surmised from the silence that he hadn't. "Yeah..." Ron mumbled. "He's my dad—and your uncles—boss."

Harry thought about a lot over the last few days of their holidays.

And it was good that he had a lot on his mind, or he probably would have spent most of the time disgusted at how much making out Ron and Hermione did. They had years to make up for, so he could give them that, but it still wasn't something that he wanted to be around. Ginny hung out with them a lot, and she was funny, so she also helped to distract Harry, but most of the time, he thought about Draco.

It fucked him off how much he thought about Draco.

He had been trying to get over Draco for almost a year now, and it just  _wasn't working_.

The first time that they had hooked up had been after gym class. He and Draco had never really hung out, their social circles just weren't the same. When they had first started at the school, Draco had made a few moves, as though he was trying to be friends with Harry, but the guy was an arrogant twot, and Harry just hadn't been interested. They didn't have a  _bad_  relationship or anything, they just didn't have one _at all_. It had been weird, the way Draco had started looking at him recently—ever since seeing Harry and Oliver Wood making out one weekend—and Harry couldn't shake the prickling that skittered over his skin as Draco's silver eyes tracked his movements to the shower.

Draco had been blunt about it, when Harry had come out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, and he had asked Harry if he was gay. Harry had been jolted by the question, but it wasn't something he tried to hide about himself, it just wasn't something he screamed from the rooftops. So he had nodded. Draco had bitten at his lower lips and had then stepped forward, almost nervous, which was something that Draco had never looked before. Then he had kissed Harry, urgent and hard.

At first, Harry had gone along with it, then he had pulled back and raised an eyebrow, stating just because he was gay, didn't mean he was attracted to Draco—didn't mean he was attracted to  _every_  male. It didn't work like that. Draco had rolled his eyes and mumbled that he  _knew_  that, but...He was  _hoping_  that Harry  _was_  attracted to him.

It sucked that he was.

All of this angst and heart break would have been avoidable if he  _wasn't_.

But even though they had never really gotten on, Harry couldn't help but check Draco out a couple of times, especially when they were in gym class, and sometimes when they were just in the classroom, and it was obvious how intelligent Draco was, even if he didn't try all that hard.

So Harry had gone along with it.

And then it had kind of just evolved from there.

They had been making out every now and then, which had then graduated to exchanging phones numbers. They had been tentative about texting at first, but then texts turned to snapchats and phone calls. And that was when they started planning their meet ups, rather than just awkwardly gesturing at each other when they happened to end up in the same place at the same time. Draco had never been with any other male, only girls, but for what he lacked in finesse, he made up in enthusiasm, and he loved going down on Harry, and had a thing for Harry coming on his face. Harry had no problem being the one that Draco experimented things on—even if he didn't have all that much more experience that Draco himself—and the more time they spent together, the more he realized that he wasn't just  _physically_  attracted to the blonde, it was more than that as well.

The pair of them weren't  _dating_ , they were never a thing like that. But they studied together a couple times a week in the library, or out the back of the school, and they would hang out at the occasional party that both of their social circles were at. Ron and Hermione knew what was going on between them, and Blaise, who was Draco's roommate, knew what was happening as well, but it was still something that Draco wanted to keep quiet.

Draco wasn't out because he didn't really know what he was. He said quietly at one stage that he might be bisexual, because he definitely liked girls, but then he really liked Harry, who was a guy. Harry tried telling him that it was okay, that he didn't need to have a label, but he seemed to have a hang up on them. Harry was pretty sure it was more that Draco just hadn't fully accepted that about  _himself_  yet, and he was still worried about coming out to his friends, and especially his family, how they would react.

Harry could understand that.

He couldn't relate to it, because he had always known that Sirius would love him, no matter what, and he had been best friends with Hermione and Ron since he was a kid, and they were the ones that helped him realize that he was gay.

But he could still understand it, and so he never pushed it.

Even when their fooling around turned to something more, like the study dates, and the going into town together in the weekends, and getting together to talk and laugh rather than to make out or have sex, Harry didn't push anything, because it wasn't his place to move along Draco's timeline. As he much as he wanted what they were doing to be more public, to be able to hold Draco's hand in public or kiss him in front of their friends, he still didn't even know if Draco wanted a relationship or if he thought that they had just...Become  _friendly_  in among all the making out.

Harry really hoped not.

Because he was falling in love with Draco.

It was a month before the school broke up for the year, just before their exams were due to start, that Draco had gone home to Wiltshire to see his parents. He didn't talk about his parents much, but from small things he had said, Harry had surmised that he adored his mother, and had a very tumultuous relationship with his father. He didn't usually go home, other than holidays where he  _had_  to, but when Harry asked if there was a particular reason why he was going back for the weekend, Draco had just shrugged, not really answering his question.

And then when he got back, it was like the past six months just hadn't happened.

He stopped replying to Harry's texts while he was away, and he continued ignoring them once he got back. Harry tried ringing him at one point, and that was when he realized that Draco had actually  _blocked_  his number.

When that had settled over him, it had felt like a kick to the chest.

He had _no idea_  what happened.

Harry had tried to talk to him in the lockers rooms after they had finished in gym class, and then when they were leaving classes that they had together, and he had gone over to the Slytherin dorm rooms and had gone up to Harry's room, but Blaise had opened the door and given him an awkward look and said Draco wasn't there, even though the kid who had let him into the dorm rooms had said that they were upstairs. He had kept on trying, which had distracted him from his studies and the upcoming exams, which Hermione had said _no person_ was worth, because this was his  _future_ , and so he had tried to let it go, but then once exams were over, school was over, and they were all heading home for the summer holidays and they weren't going to see each other until school went back.

Harry tried to send him messages on Facebook, since they were still friends on there, but three days after he had, he had gone back to look online and Draco's account had disappeared from his messenger app, which meant that he was blocked on there _as well_.

He  _hated_  how much that hurt.

His chest ached and his head spun and he was so confused and sad and poor Hermione had ended up listening to a whole lot more about her best friend and Draco than she probably needed to hear, but she didn't complain.

Hermione was a complete godsend over the holiday break, and she had let him stretch out on her bed with his head on her lap and had stroked her fingers through his hair as he whined and occasionally cried over Draco and let him get it all out. She didn't stop him for nearly two weeks, and then she arranged for Ron to come and stay without telling him, and they staged an intervention.

Harry knew they were right when they told him that he had to move on, he had to focus on something else other than Draco because Draco had made it clear that things were done, things were over between them.

He felt completely pathetic that he had to be told that he needed to move on from someone who hadn't even been his  _boyfriend_.

Hermione and Ron kept on telling him that he wasn't pathetic, that it was understandable, although Ron definitely looked a little out of his depth as he tried to comfort Harry, leaving most of the talking to Hermione.

They had a good holiday, at least, as much as Harry could, even though most of the time Draco was still at the forefront of his thoughts. Sirius had obviously known something was up as well, but he hadn't pushed Harry about it, which he had appreciated.

And now, Harry was just...He was  _done_.

It had been months—almost a whole  _year_  now, since they were nearly through February now.

So he was going to forget about the flowers.

He had more important things to focus on.

Exams were fast approaching, and even though Harry wasn't planning on going to university after the summer ended, he still knew he had to do well, because after he and Ron had gotten back from their overseas trip, he was planning on going then. He didn't know what he was going to study, exactly, but he knew that he needed to keep his options open, so he had to do well on his exams so that whatever he chose to do, he had a shot at it.

Although, the whole overseas trip thing was starting to be called into question.

Not the fact that Harry was going, because he definitely  _was_.

But with Ron and Hermione together now, Harry was beginning to wonder if Ron was still going to be happy going away for so long when Hermione was definitely going to be staying in the country to go to university. Ron hadn't actually said anything to Harry about it, and whenever it came up, it still sounded as though he was enthusiastic to go, but Harry was just waiting for an awkward conversation to come. He had spoken to Sirius about it as well, and Sirius had asked him if it would affect his decision to go, and his uncle had been pleased when Harry had said no, he would still go, and said that he would still have a life changing experience, even if it was by himself, and that he would meet a lot of people along the way.

It was late on a Thursday when Harry went to the library to study.

They'd had lacrosse practice this afternoon and he was tired, but because of the practice, he had missed the chemistry study group that afternoon that was  _usually_  on a Wednesday, but had switched to a Thursday this week, which was frustrating. Harry knew that he really should have gone to the study group, since chemistry was one of his worst subjects, but he was captain of the lacrosse team, and he would have felt as though he was letting everyone down if he hadn't gone.

It was almost nine o'clock, and Harry was beginning to think that he should just give up for the day, get up early in the morning and beg Hermione to help him even if she wasn't his number one tutor option. He rubbed a hand over his face, and then through his hair, which was now dry from the shower he had taken after lacrosse, and was about to close his books when he heard someone clear their throat behind them.

"Sorry, Ms Pince," Harry muttered, assuming that it was the older librarian coming to tell him to get out of the library, but when he turned around in his seat, any words he was about to say left as he he saw it wasn't the librarian there.

It was Draco.

 _Draco_.

Harry clicked his teeth together and blinked, as though checking that it was really Draco standing there. But after closing his eyes a few times, the blonde was still standing there, looking nervous and sheepish and he was chewing down on his bottom lip. Harry scratched the side of his face before slowly turning back around to face his books, his whole body tense as he heard movement behind him and knew that Draco was getting closer. A moment later, Draco was putting down books on the opposite side of him, opening them up to the same page that Harry was on.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked in a low voice, still torn between being happy that Draco was finally acknowledging him, and furious that he  _was_  so happy at Draco for finally acknowledging him.

"McGonagall said that your Chemistry scores have gone all the way down again this year," Draco mumbled. "She said Granger and Longbottom had nothing on my tutoring skills." Harry jerked his head back at that and arched an eyebrow at Draco, who had uttered the last word in the same quiet voice, but Harry knew for the fact it was a lie.

"McGonagall would never say that," he shot back and Draco shrugged, as though he didn't care.

"She implied it," he replied.

"And what are you doing talking to McGonagall about my scores in the first place? She wouldn't just  _tell_  you that," Harry frowned. Draco's neck stiffened as he stared down at his books, and the rapped his fingers against the corner of the pages, fidgeting in a way that he did whenever he was nervous.

"I asked," he admitted quietly. Harry didn't know how to reply to that, so he didn't. He just looked back down at his books. The text and the formulas on the page didn't make any sense, even though he was fully aware that he should  _know_  all of these right now, but he didn't. They were so close to graduating, and he just needed to scrape by on this, and then he would get his school certificate and he could get out of there and not worry about any more studying for  _at least_  a year.

Hopefully longer.

"Did you want some help?" Draco finally asked and Harry ground his back teeth together and tightened his fingers around his pen as he thought about his response. Draco didn't move and he didn't say anything, and even though Harry had his eyes fixed purposefully on his book in front of him, he could feel Draco's eyes on him. The silence was uncomfortable and stretched and there was prickling over the back of Harry's neck.

"What are you doing here?" Harry finally blurted out and Draco's eyebrows raised. He actually had the audacity to look surprised, as though it hadn't been almost a year since they had last had a proper conversation. " _Why_  are you here?" Draco's face paled a little, although it was hard to tell with how pale he was anyway, and he twisted his mouth.

"I...I told you," he began quietly. "McGonagall said that you needed—"

" _No_ ," Harry cut him off, not even caring that he sounded harsh. "I've been failing at Chemistry all year and you didn't show any interest then." At least he had the decency to look down now, looking a little ashamed. " _Why are you here_?" Harry repeated. "Draco, I—"

"Shit, I missed you, okay?" Draco cut him off, and he actually looked annoyed as he said it, although Harry wasn't sure if he was annoyed with Harry, or just with himself. "I miss you, and I know that you were always shit at Chemistry, so I figured that maybe you could actually stand being in the same room as me if I offered to help." Harry didn't know what to say—again. On one hand, hadn't he been waiting for Draco to say that he missed him? On the other hand, it had been a year, and Draco was coming to him, saying all of this shit, even though school broke up in just a couple of weeks time and then they would likely never see each other, unless they went out of their way too.

"Draco," Harry clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, searching for something to say. Draco was looking at him expectantly—almost  _hopeful_ —and Harry was about to say his name again, to just fill the space while he found what else to say, when they were interrupted.

"The library is closing," Ms Pince stated abruptly. "You two need to leave, go back to your dorms." Harry sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, slumping back in his seat and looking down at his books.

He was  _screwed_.

He was never going to pass the Chemistry exams.

Which means he would have to ace everything else, which he only had a slim chance at doing. There was an accounting paper that he was relatively certain he was going to fail.

"We could come back tomorrow?" Draco suggested as Harry made a move to gather up his books. "I could help?" Harry felt a rush of annoyance, even though Draco helping him was potentially the only chance he had at passing. But he had no idea  _why_  this had been prompted, why Draco suddenly decided that talking to him was something he could  _do_  now.

"No," Harry suddenly snapped out. Draco blinked and jerked back as though he had been punched in the face. " _No_ , I don't  _want_  your help, okay?!" Harry got to his feet, not caring that his notes weren't in order as he grabbed them and piled them together. "Shit, you can't just—you fucking cut me off without  _any_  explanation and then show up a year later and act as though  _nothing_  has happened and you can just—can just—"

"Help you?" Draco offered, cutting off Harry's spluttering and Harry glared at him. Draco offered a small, hesitant smile, trying to ease the tension between them but Harry just shook his head, scooping up all of his books and papers in his arms and storming off, not even stopping when a pen went flying and skittered across the floor. Draco watched him go, his shoulders drooping, chewing on the corner of his lower lip.

Harry barely got any sleep that night.

He was glad that the classes were all just revision and studying the next day, because there was no way that he could have learnt anything new. He was barely retaining anything that he learnt through the year as it was, and now with Draco bouncing around in his head—completely refreshed, everything all new again, the wounds suddenly feeling like they had just been seared opened again—he had absolutely no chance of studying like he should be.

Even Hermione noticed, despite how deep she was buried in her studies.

"What's going on, Harry?" Hermione asked as she sat down next to where Harry was sitting at one of the picnic tables on the field. There were people kicking a soccer ball around, one of them was Cedric, and he grinned and waved over at the pair of them. Harry waved back, but it was half-hearted, and afterwards, he dropped his head into his hands, his elbows on the edge of the picnic table.

"Draco talked to me last night," Harry stated, groaning into his arms. Hermione had been multi-tasking, trying to find out what was wrong with Harry while also skimming through a Physics text book, but at the words, she jerked her head up and looked at him with wide eyes.

" _What_?" Hermione hissed out.

"He just...He just  _showed up_ , in the library," Harry muttered, his voice still a little muffled from where he was talking against his arms. "He...Said that he had been talking to McGonagall and knew that I needed help with Chemistry for my exams."

"And he just—he just started  _talking_  to you?!" Hermione's eyebrows were pulled together and her eyes were narrow. She put down her book and crossed her arms over her chest tightly. "The fucking  _nerve_  of him!" Harry let out a heavy sigh, not sure what else to say, his shoulders heaving before slumping back down. The pair of them were quiet as they thought things over, and Hermione's attention was shifted as she noticed Ron walking over to them. He had a class that ran later than theirs, and usually they couldn't have lunch together on Fridays, but given classes were running long and short and they were mainly just for revision, he must have gotten out early today.

"Hey, Mione," Ron said, leaning down to give her a kiss and then raising an eyebrow at Harry's slumped figure. "What's going on here?"

"Draco talked to him yesterday," Hermione wrinkled her nose distastefully. "Just came up to him and started talking."

"What did he want?!" Ran asked, his words a lot sharper than they had been before.

"To help me with Chemistry," Harry finally lifted his head up and turned his head to one side, and then the other, his neck cricking.

"Fucking hell, just acting as though everything was okay?" Ron made a face. "Acting as though the last year hasn't happened and he didn't just fucking blow you off and act like a total prick?!" Ron clenched his fists at his side and let out an angry, heavy breath. "Typical Malfoy." Harry took in a deep breath and then got up from the table, picking up his books from where they were in a tidy pile on the wooden table top.

"I'm heading to the library," Harry told his friends. "I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?"

"Okay, Harry," Hermione gave him a small smile.

"Alright, mate," Ron slapped his hand down on Harry's shoulder and gave it a brief squeeze. Harry gave them a tight smile before heading back toward the buildings of their school. Usually people would be excited for the weekends, since a lot of them would head home, and even the ones who would stay at the school would leave to spend most of their time in the nearby towns. But because of the time of year that it was—and especially for the people that Harry spent most of his time with—they were pretty much in lock down, getting ready for their exams.

All that Harry really had time for was the lacrosse finals that were coming up this weekend and his exams.

But instead, he was now worrying about Draco.

 _Again_.

After he had  _finally_  managed to get himself to move on.

Harry had almost made it to the library, taking the back way past the assembly hall and walking between the science labs, when he heard a laugh that had a way of annoyingly bothering most of the people in the school.

Pansy.

Harry quickened his step and hoped that he would be able to duck under the railing to the ramp that lead to the side entrance of the library before they made awkward eye contact, but then she looked up from where she was standing close to Blaise—the pair of them were leaning against the wall, half hidden by a tree—and she looked directly at him. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, and then they flickered downward, to his feet, as though she was thinking about something. When she looked back up, her lips lifted, in a strange, tentative... _Smile_?

Harry couldn't help but let out a disbelieving snort, not returning the smile at all as he slipped under the metal railing and pulled open the door to the library, walking inside. It was full—really the only time of year that it was—but he managed to find a seat in the back, at a desk that was facing the wall, behind several rows of shelves with dusty books that were probably never used.

He started with History, which was one of his stronger subjects and probably didn't need the most revision, but he figured if he was going to completely bomb Chemistry, he should try and ace the other ones. He was halfway through one of the revision tests that was tucked into the back of his book when there was movement behind him that then settled, rather than walking away and Harry frowned as he turned around.

When he saw it was Draco, his eyes widened and he couldn't help but throw his hands upward.

"What are you doing here?!" He cried out, completely confused and a little. Even though they were relatively closed off from the rest of the library and they couldn't actually see anyone else, they still definitely  _heard_  at least four different people shushing them. Harry pressed his lips together and flexed his fingers. "Seriously, what's going on? Twice in two days? You made it  _perfectly_  clear that we weren't going to talk, and now you're acting like things are normal?!" Draco clicked his teeth together a couple of times and twisted his lips.

"Can we talk?" He asked, running his fingers through his blonde hair, which was getting even longer and was flopping forward over his left eye. "Somewhere else?" Harry really wasn't sure if he was going to recover from an actual, full-blown conversation from Draco, muchless before next period, but he had to know what it was that had all of a sudden changed.

"Yeah," Harry muttered. He piled all his things back together and then tucked them in one of the shelves underneath the desk to pick up later. His pen would probably get stolen, they tended to go missing around here if they weren't kept close, but he had a hundred more back in his dorm room.

Draco and Harry walked out of the library, and then Harry slowed down so that he was half a step behind the blonde, letting him lead the way. He really wasn't sure where they were heading or what the plan was, but he had far too many questions to give up an opportunity to get answers. Draco began walking toward the field, which Harry wasn't  _too_  happy about, because he would rather  _not_  see his friends and their expressions when they saw them together, but then Draco veered off, toward the gym. There were a few benches behind the gym that were mainly used by people who wanted to make out without teachers catching them or smoking, and at this point in the school year, teachers didn't even bother to come around and check who was there.

"Okay," Draco took in a deep breath as he sat down, straddling one of the benches and splaying out his hands in front of him. He was staring down at his hands, although Harry was trying not to, because when he looked down at Draco's long, slim fingers, his mind went somewhere that he really didn't want to go right now. "I need to say—can you sit down?" Draco arched an eyebrow, his eyes flicking up at the brunette and nodded at the other side of the bench. There was a slight tinge of impatience to his voice that made him sound more like himself than he had in the past few days.

"Fine," Harry jerked his head in a nod and sat down on the bench, knees pressed together and his hands clenched together. Draco glanced at him, at how far away Harry was sitting, and he sighed but he didn't say anything about it.

"I need to say I'm sorry," Draco began, and his voice sounded controlled and his words came out slow, as though he had been rehearsing them. Which made sense, because Harry had never Draco apologize—to  _anyone_. "I'm..." he took in a deep breath and then he looked up again, but this time, he kept his eyes locked on Harry, not dropping his gaze, and Harry found he couldn't look away. "I'm really, really sorry." Harry felt his heart squeeze and he couldn't stop his lips from parting in surprise at the absolute sincerity in Draco's voice, and he felt pressure behind his eyes that completely took him off guard. He had felt  _angry_  just a few minutes ago, and now that had completely deflated. "I have an...An  _explanation_ , and I don't want you to think that it's an excuse, because it's not—I know that I was an asshole and I could have dealt with it better and that I could—"

"Draco," Harry cut him off, because he was starting to flounder, and it was obvious from the way that his pale features were shifting, that he was distressed. "Draco, just...Tell me what happened." Draco looked relieved at being interrupted and he nodded.

"You know my parents didn't know that I...Liked guys as well as girls," Draco was speaking purposefully and slowly, and once again, it was clear that this was had been practiced. "I hadn't even really put it all together until, you know, we started...Hanging out." Harry nodded, not verbally interrupting Draco again. "Look, I...I wanted to tell my parents." Harry's eyebrows lifted at that. "Mainly my mum, but I couldn't just tell her, had to tell my father as well." Harry nodded again. "And...And my father..." Draco huffed out a breath through his nose. "I don't know what part he was more pissed about, to be honest. The fact I came home and told them that there was a guy that I wanted to ask to be my boyfriend, or the the fact that your parents weren't owners of, like, a law firm or a fortune five hundred company," he attempted a smile and Harry felt as though he needed to smile back, to encourage Draco to keep going, so he tried, but he knew that it was more just a twist of his lips upward. Draco swallowed hard. "And then I told him who your uncle is—or I told mum, when she asked, and then they were asking where your uncle works and then—"

"Wait," Harry's head jerked, realization blanketing over him. "Is this to do with the fact that your father is my uncles boss?" Draco winced.

"Kind of," he admitted quietly.

"So you didn't want to make things...I don't know— _official_  between us because your father is my uncles boss?!" Harry's nose was wrinkling in confusion and Draco's eyes suddenly widened and he shook his head.

"No!" He cried out. "No—I,  _fuck_ ," Draco curled his fingers into fists and wrapped his knuckles down hard on the wooden bench between his legs. "There were a bunch of lay offs happening and..." he licked his lower lip nervously. "He said that he would make sure your uncle was a part of that if I stayed with you." Harry blinked at him. "I think—look, I don't  _know_ , okay? I just know that your uncle is the only family you have, and I've heard you talk about him, and I know that—I mean, it's not like you guys have heaps of money or anything, right?! He needs his job! And I couldn't be the one—"

"Draco," Harry cut him off before rubbing his hand over his face and tugging at his fringe. "Why didn't you  _tell_  me?" Draco sighed.

"I don't—if I told you, then I knew that you would come up with some way around it, and then you would talk me out of it, and then my father  _would_  go through with it because he always did, and it would be  _my_  fault, and then we would always have to live with that shit!" Draco exclaimed. Harry took in everything that Draco said, and even though there was a lot that he was processing from their short discussion, he couldn't help but go back to the fact that Draco had gone home to tell his parents about Harry, and it had been because he wanted to ask him to be his  _boyfriend_.

"I wish that you had told me this," Harry murmured, stroking his fingers through his hair before letting both hands drop to his knees. "I would have talked to my uncle, and he would have talked to some of the other bosses. Your father can't just  _do_  that."

"He  _could_ ," Draco argued. "Fuck, he might not be the only CEO of the company, but the others listen to him, he has so many in his pocket, and he's got all sorts of connections to other businesses and companies. Look—I couldn't risk it. That's why I didn't tell you."

"So why are you telling me now?" Harry asked with a shrug of his shoulder. "Why did you come to me yesterday?" His eyebrows pulled together and he tilted his head to the side. "And you're the one who gave me the daffodils after Valentines Day, right?" Draco's cheeks went a little red and he shrugged and nodded.

"Yeah," he muttered. "I...Things have been shit this year, okay? Not having you to talk to and, just, hang out with. Pansy kept telling me to talk to you, to tell you. At least," Draco snorted softly and shook his head. "That was after she realized how much I liked you. She knew that I had been seeing someone, but she didn't know  _who_  it was, but she knew that there was someone, and she thought that getting back with her would help me get over you—whoever I was with before. Although, I have told her  _now_ , coz I know we're exes and everything, but she's also one of my best mates." Harry blinked at him. "And  _you_  looked like things were going pretty shitty with you as well, and that kind of made me feel good, to be honest—sorry," he added, making a face. "But then you looked better when you were with Cedric, and it was shit, but also kind of good, because I knew that I should be happy that you were happy, but I wanted you to know that I was still thinking about you, even though it was  _me_  that had totally frozen you out and blown you off and shit—"

"Draco," Harry interrupted him again, because he felt as though they were just going around in circles and not really moving forward, and there was a couple of people who were looking over at them curiously.

"I miss you and fuck what my father thinks," Draco bluntly said, getting right to the point now.

Harry blinked.

"I miss you so fucking much and school is almost over and I just need you to know that it was because I was trying to do the right thing," Draco continued.

Harry blinked again.

And then the bell rang shrilly and both of them jerked at the sudden sound.

"Okay," Harry breathed out, rolling his shoulders and tipping his head from side to side. "Okay," he repeated and started nodding, probably a few too many times before he forced himself to stand up. Draco remained sitting down, knocking his knuckles down on the bench in a quick beat. "Thank you for telling me," Harry managed to get out. Draco's eyebrows pulled together.

"Um...You're welcome?" Draco replied slowly. Harry stared at him for a few beats, chewing down on his bottom lip before taking a few steps back. Draco nodded, as though to tell him that he was okay with Harry going to class. So Harry nodded back and then turned around, joining the groups of students heading back toward their classes.

Hermione had a lot to say about it.

So did Ron.

So did Neville, as well, who turned out to be studying behind the couch in the Gryffindor common room when the trio had thought it was empty and Harry had spilled everything to his best friends. Hermione looked as though she was ready to storm out of their dorms and demand further answers from Draco. Ron looked confused as hell. Neville seemed to be taking it the best—probably because he was involved  _the least_ —and he was all for Harry and Draco just getting back together. Especially since this completely explained why the flowers were dropped off, although Neville had of course suspected that something was going on between them after that incident.

Hermione kept going from one opinion to another, which was unusual for her, since she was usually very solid on where she stood.

Harry didn't usually make the train ride home for impromptu weekends, especially  _now_ , when he was meant to be studying. But he had to talk to his uncle face-to-face, and he just needed to get away from Hogwarts. He studied on the train, and he dragged pretty much all his books back to London even though it was a hassle, so that he could study the Saturday night he was there.

"Harry!" Sirius exclaimed as he opened the door and saw Harry sitting at the kitchen table, the space completely covered in books and scraps of paper, his laptop also open. "You should have told me that you were planning coming back and I would have said no to working this morning!"

"I didn't really know until last night I was coming back—actually, it was more like one o'clock _this morning_  when Hermione booked my train ticket. She's the one that decided I should come and see you," Harry admitted.

"Hermione sent you to me? This is a problem that even she couldn't solve, so she sent you my way?" Sirius grinned but when Harry didn't return it, his expression changed and he came around to sit down on the same side of the table as Harry. Harry hated telling Sirius the whole story—editing out details about his and Draco's relationship that he was  _definitely_  never going to tell anyone but his best friends—because he felt as though he had betrayed Sirius in a way. He knew he hadn't, he knew it wasn't  _him_ , and he also knew it wasn't  _Draco_ , it was Mr Malfoy, but he still hated telling Sirius all of this.

He knew he had to, though.

Halfway through, Sirius draped his arm around Harry's shoulder to give him a light squeeze, and once he had finished, Sirius gave him a proper hug, nearly pulling him off his chair.

"I don't want you to worry about this," Sirius said quietly, speaking into Harry's hair. "This is not something you need to spend your time concerned about." Harry pulled back and frowned up at his uncle. Sirius gave him a soothing smile and smoothed his hands over Harry's hair, pushing it back from his forehead. "It took a lot for this boy to say something to you, and I saw how you were over the summer..." Sirius wrinkled his nose. "You were a complete mess."

"Thanks," Harry muttered, rolling his eyes.

"You were," Sirius insisted with a wry smile, and Harry couldn't help but grin, feeling the tension beginning to leave his shoulders. "I didn't want to push you, and then you seemed to be feeling better this year, so I thought that things must have worked themselves out. I thought it might have been Cedric that had gotten you so twisted up last year, since he suddenly showed up."

"Oh, Cedric," Harry shrugged. "Nah, he's...He is great, but it was never really anything serious between us." Sirius nodded, looking completely understanding.

"Like I said, I think that you should give this boy another chance. It's clear he still has feelings for you," Sirius gave him a nudge. "And as for Lucius Malfoy..." Sirius' expression darkened. "He is one of the CEO for now, however there's been a lot of investigation going into him at the moment. There have been a lot of fraudulent reports that have been circulating and some of the big investors have been lied to, and they believe that it loops back to Lucius, which wouldn't be surprising at all. But even if that  _wasn't_  the case, this is  _my_  job and this is  _my_  problem to worry about."

"But—"

"I want you to focus on your exams, and I want you to focus on this trip that you and Ron have been planning on for so long, and I want you to tell that boy you accept his apology," Sirius continued, giving him a pointed look. "What he did wasn't the best approach to the situation, but he did it because he cared." Harry nodded, not really knowing what to say. "Alright," Sirius glanced up at the clock on the wall. "How about you keep studying for the next few hours and then we'll go out for dinner?"

When Harry returned to Hogwarts on Sunday night, he had a plan to seek out Draco. That plan was derailed when he realized Hermione and Ron were waiting for him and he stopped to talk to them. That lead to him going with them back to their dorm and taking his bags and books up to his room, and by the time he had done that, the courage that he had been up over the past day with his uncle and the train ride back had dissipated.

Harry tried to give himself a pep talk in his head, tried to force himself to leave his dorm room to go and seek out Draco, but he just couldn't force himself to.

So he went to bed, and spent almost the whole night awake, staring up at the ceiling.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't edited yet, sorry. I'll get there.
> 
> 03/06/2019 - Chapter is now edited :)

The next day began official study leave for the senior students, and some of them chose to go home for the next week or however long it was until their first exam, but most of them chose to remain on campus, for extra help from study sessions with their class mates and teachers. Harry was glad that he didn't have anywhere he needed to be, so he flicked off his alarm and buried his head under his pillow and drifted back off to sleep. He woke up when Hermione came by to get Ron so that they could go have breakfast together in the dining hall, but then he fell back asleep, his body trying to make up for the sleep he had lost last night.

He didn't get up until eleven o'clock, going into the bathroom across the hall, taking his time in the shower to scrub his face and was his hair.

After Harry had dressed, he gathered up some of his books and a few pens and then left the Gryffindor dormitory. He strode quickly toward the Slytherin dorms before he lost his nerve, pushing open the front door and coming face-to-face with Blaise.

"Potter," Blaise's eyebrows pulled together in a question, and he looked over his shoulder before looking back at Harry. "You...Looking for someone in particular?"

"Draco," Harry stated, glad when his voice didn't waver. Blaise stared at him for another few beats before nodding, and then jerking his head toward the stairs.

"He's up in our room," he replied. "Same one as last year," he added unnecessarily, because they had one of the best rooms in the dorm last year, it was unlikely they would give that up or put in for a transfer. Harry nodded and walked up the stairs, at a fast pace, just like he had when crossing the court to come to the dorms, and he passed by a Theodore Nott who gave him a curious look, but Harry ignored it as he reached the second floor and walked to the far end. He got to the last door on the left, beside a floor to ceiling window, and he faltered outside.

The door was cracked open, not totally closed, and so Harry wasn't sure if he should push it open and just  _announce_  himself, or if he should knock on the door first. After standing outside for nearly ten whole minutes, he jumped out of his skin when a voice spoke up behind him.

"D! You've got a visitor!" Harry's head whipped around to see Pansy standing there, an eyebrow arched at him. He turned back quickly to look forward when he heard the door widen and then Draco was standing there.

Without a shirt on.

Harry tried to keep his eyes fixed on his face, but his cheeks pinked anyway.

"Thanks, Pansy," Draco gave her a nod, but his attention was fixed completely on Harry. There was movement behind him, and he was guessing that Pansy had left them, and he swallowed hard. "Hi," Draco began, looking nervous, and then glanced down and seemed to realize that he was shirtless. He folded his arms over his chest, as though covering up, which was completely unlike him. Draco had always been more than happy to flaunt his toned, pale body, and he still was—generally. Running around with no shirt on in gym class and sunbathing with his school shirt unbuttoned all the way and hanging open in their lunch break, until a teacher caught him and snapped at him to cover up.

"Hey," Harry managed to get out. "I...I was hoping that you could help me with Chemistry." Draco's eyes widened in surprise. "And..." the second part was a bit harder, but Harry forced the words out, because they needed to be said. "And I wanted to say thank you f-for telling me what you did." Draco's eyes seemed to get even wider, his silvery-grey eyes glittering. "So...Thank you," Harry's heard the click in his throat as he swallowed hard and looked down. Draco's feet were bare, which was endearing, peeking out from under the hem of the plaid pyjama pants he was wearing.

"You don't have to thank me," Draco's words were quiet. "I didn't  _do_  anything."

"You  _told_  me," Harry replied. "It doesn't—I mean, it doesn't get  _rid_  of the shit feeling I've had for the past year, but it makes it easier, at least, and it helps to explain things," he shrugged. "That you didn't leave me for someone else, that it wasn't your  _choice_  to just break things off—or, I guess it was," he quickly added. "But you chose the option that was best for me, which...It means a lot, that you were trying to protect me and my uncle." Draco was quiet for a long length of time, and Harry finally lifted his head from looking at the ground and met Draco's smile.

The blonde looked as though he was on the verge of smiling, but he was keeping it at bay, holding it back.

"Okay," he jerked his head in a nod, eyes flicking around Harry's face, trying to gauge how comfortable things were right now. "Makes sense you need to come to me—Granger is shit when it comes to tutoring," he added with a quirk of his lips, and Harry let himself smile back, more out of relief that the awkwardness of his apology was out of the way, and he was glad that Draco had accepted it so easily. "Right—so did you want to come in? I can just shove Blaise's stuff off the desk..." he was already backing up into his room, but Harry felt himself clam up as he looked around. The only times he had ever been in this room was when they were hooking up, and he really didn't feel comfortable going inside.

"I was thinking that we could go to the library?" Harry suggested, grinding his back teeth together as he hoped that Draco didn't take that too hard. Draco blinked up at him and the small smile on his face dropped, but he tried to cover it up quickly, nodding and looking away, walking over to his drawers and pulling them open.

"Yeah, yeah, of course," he replied as he pulled out a shirt and then tugged it on. Given they were technically on study break, even though they were in school, they didn't have to wear their usual uniform, and so Draco was just in a plain grey shirt, but it still clung to his biceps and showed off his lean torso. "Alright," when Draco looked back up, his expression was carefully trained into something that didn't give anything away. "Let's go," he said with a small smile that didn't reach his eyes.

They met up every second day that week, and just like last year when Draco was helping him study, things just made a whole lot more  _sense_. Draco was smart, but he wasn't quite as technically minded as Hermione, who explained things in a way that were almost as complicated as McGonnagall, but he also wasn't as nice to him as Neville could be, acting as though it was okay when Harry didn't get something on the third time around—he needed that push that Draco gave him when he expected  _more_.

Harry had two different Accounting exams first, and they came halfway through the week after he and Draco started studying together. A lot of his exams had been internal ones—Ron only had one subject where he had end of year exams whereas Hermione had exams for each of her subjects, including the two extra AP courses that she was taking—so other than Accounting and Chemistry, he only had Calculus and History, and it was only one for both of them.

And then he would be done for the year.

"We're gonna have to find jobs  _pretty_  quickly," Ron made a face, wrinkling his nose as he looked at the laptop screen. He and Harry had just brought three of their plane tickets.

The first one was to Paris, where they had both been before, once together with the Weasley's, and then Harry had gone two other times, both with Sirius. They were only going to stay in the city for two days, looking around, and then they were going to make their way through the Loire Valley—probably rent out a car so that they could go at their own pace—and then to Provence. Then they were moving onto Spain to spend about two weeks, maybe with a quick stop over in Portugal, and then there was their next flight, from Madrid to Italy. They had no solid plans in Italy, other than a two week stint on a winery and a few nights with one of Sirius' distant cousins, Bellatrix Lestrange, who Harry had met a couple of times. They hadn't applied for many jobs, from what they read online, a lot of them you could just ring the day before and show up for, and they were more than willing to let you come in for a few hours for some cash. The stint at the winery was mainly going to be cleaning, from what they had seen, but that didn't bother them, it was only for a few hours a morning and then they were free to explore. The time with Bellatrix would be a good pit stop, give them somewhere to collect themselves, even though from what Harry remembered of her, she had been pretty eccentric the time that he had met her. From Florence, they were going to take a train to Zurich. They were going to spend another few weeks in Switzerland, and then Germany. Hermione was insistent that they go to Berlin—she went on and on about the art and the culture and the museums—but Ron had rolled his eyes at her. It wasn't that they  _weren't_  set to go anywhere like that, it was just they weren't  _quite_  as enthusiastic about those things as she was. So the plan was still to stop in Berlin, but then move on to Dresden quite quickly after that, explore the Black Forest and Bavarian Alps.

By this point, they would have been gone for nearly two months, and it strange to think that back at home, Hermione would be getting ready to go to University. Harry had mentioned to Ron that even though the plan had always been for just the two of them to go, Hermione was welcome, and Ron had shrugged and said that there was no way that she was going to put off going to University. She had big plans, and even though they were together now, she was insistent on sticking with those plans and he was going to need to work around that.

It sounded a bit harsh, but to Harry and Ron, they knew it wasn't. It was just Hermione. She had expectations of herself, and she was planning on following through. But neither Harry or Ron thought that this was going to effect the relationship that they had with her, especially Ron and Hermione's. Because once Hermione set her mind to something, once she  _wanted_  something, she wasn't going to let go, and her friendship with Harry and her relationship with Ron was something she wanted, so she would never let it go.

Then they were going to Romania for another few weeks, which was where Charles Weasley was living and working. That would at least be their accommodation sorted for a while, give them some down time between moving from place to place and always being on the go.

The final plane ticket they had brought was taking them the furthest.

To John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Neither of them had been to New York—or the States in general.

They were going to be staying at an actual hotel for the first couple of nights there—Molly had absolutely insisted on that. She had all sorts of ideas in her head about 'The America's', as she primly called it, and she knew that they were going to be backpacking and travelling almost the whole time that they were away, but she was insistent that the for their first few nights on a whole new continent, they were going to stay in a hotel. Then they had plans to go to Savannah, Chicago and Charleston, and specific places in mind like Zion National Park, Glacier National Park, Yosemite and the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. They had also promised Hermione they would go and visit the Smithsonian museums. And there was Hollywood and San Diego and Los Angeles...Pretty much, their plans after they stayed in New York were pretty fuzzy, they were just going to take them from there, which is why they had only brought three plane tickets.

Harry was personally keen to keep on travelling, through Canada, to Japan, to Thailand and Vietnam, but with the way Ron and Hermione were acting, he had a feeling that by this point—which was going to be a solid half year in—they were going to want to be reunited.

Their passports and visas were all ready—Hermione and Molly had mainly taken care of that—and then they were going to have to look at all their work permits and things as they went, but Harry and Ron could take care of all of that.

"We'll be fine," Harry nudged Ron with his elbow.

"Easy for you to say!" Ron wrinkled his nose and made a face. "Not all of us have cushy bank accounts left by our parents that we can rely on." It wasn't said with any malice, Ron's words never were, but Hermione still narrowed her eyes at him and kicked him under the table. Harry lifted an eyebrow as Ron's cheeks reddened as he realized what he said. "Oh," he cringed. "Sorry, mate." Harry just shrugged.

"It's fine," Harry replied. "Anyway, I should probably—"

"Are you ready?" Draco had suddenly appeared at his side and both Hermione and Ron frowned, looking between them in surprise. Harry cringed internally, but he managed to keep a neutral expression as he straightened up, gathering his things from the table and flipping down the screen of his laptop.

"Ready for what, exactly?" Hermione asked, recovering first and straightening up in her seat, tossing her curly hair over her shoulder, her eyebrows pulling together and managing to somehow look  _down_  her nose at Draco, even though she was sitting and he was standing. That was a look Draco and Pansy had both mastered, although Harry hadn't known his best friend had managed it either. He wondered if it was something that the lot of them practiced, or if it was something that came naturally.

"Studying," Harry responded shortly as he glanced sideways and saw Draco's surprised look that he shot them.

"You're  _studying_  with him?" Ron sounded horrified and Harry felt Draco shift beside him, falling back a few steps. Harry swallowed hard and had to force himself not to glare at Ron, even though his friend had every right to be confused. They all knew the fact that Harry had accepted Draco's apology, and they even understood where Draco had been coming from, and that he had the best intentions, although they didn't agree with that at all. Harry hadn't quite told them about the fact that he was... _Interacting_  with Draco on a regular basis, though.

He wasn't sure why he hadn't, maybe he just felt a little pathetic at how quickly he had jumped at the chance to have any contact with the guy that he had been trying so long to get over, who had just abruptly cut off all contact with him in the first place.

"I am," Harry nodded as he slipped his laptop into it's bag and slung the strap over his shoulder.

"Alright," Hermione was once again that recovered first and it wasn't  _quite_  a smile that she gave them, but it seemed like that was what she was trying to do, nodding at the pair. "Well, I  _did_  wonder who was helping him out," she addressed Draco for the first time...Maybe ever, as far back as Harry could remember. "I saw some of your papers and your scribbles actually almost made sense for one," her cheeky smirk came easier as she glanced back at Harry, who rolled his eyes at her, but couldn't stop his grateful smile at the brunette.

"I'll just meet you over there," Draco's voice was quiet as he nodded over to an alcove. Harry glanced over at him and he saw Draco's expression not quite as uptight as it had been before, his lips relaxed into an almost tentative upturn and he counted that as a plus.

Not that he needed Draco and Hermione and Ron to be friends or anything, but it would just work nicer if they got along.

For now.

Although graduation was at the end of this week and exams were officially over in two weeks, and then they would never see each other again.

Draco, that was.

So why did it matter if he and Ron and Hermione got on or not?

Why did it even really matter if he and  _Harry_  even really got on, since they weren't even Facebook friends again, so there really wasn't anything more going on between them other than being study buddies?

That made Harry's heart squeeze uncomfortably.

"How long has this been happening?" Ron asked, curling his upper lip and not hiding the fact he was staring at Draco.

"Obviously just the past week, since Harry accepted his apology," Hermione replied, but instead of staring at Draco like her boyfriend was, she narrowed her eyes at their best friend. "But my question is why didn't you tell us?" Harry pursed his lips together and managed a one shouldered shrug. Hermione watched him with those knowing eyes of hers, but then after a few moments, she shook her head. "We'll discuss this later—you should probably go over there or this is just going to get weirder than it already is." Harry sent her grateful smile and then quickly left, walking over to where Draco was sitting, with some paper and a pen resting on the table.

"Sorry about that," he apologized quietly as he sat down.

"I thought you told each other everything," Draco picked up his pen and clicked his thumb down on the top, the nib extending. "They always knew about us, right? I figured that's why Granger always looked like I was something that was stuck on her shoe and the Weasel always looked as though I was the reason that his hair is constantly a mess."

"I've told you not to call him that," Harry muttered, because he  _had_ , although that was way back when. Draco sighed and seemed to decide that he wasn't going to get any answers because he started reaching out for one of the books that Harry had put down. "I hadn't told them you were helping me study," Harry continued. "There's just been a lot going on and I didn't really know how to broach it with them because they can be a little..." he looked over his shoulder, Draco turning as well, and they could both see Hermione and Ron at the table across the long aisle, and both of them were staring back.

"Protective?" Draco offered and Harry couldn't help but snort as they both turned back around.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, making a face, and Draco let out a soft laugh. It wasn't the same as the laughter that they shared before, but it still made Harry's shoulders feel lighter.

"It's okay," Draco replied. "Blaise and Pansy can be like that." Harry nodded and then shifted around in his seat to make himself more comfortable, and his knee knocked against Draco's. He moved it away quickly, as though he had been burned, pressing his legs together and shooting Draco a nervous look. The blonde wasn't looking at him, he was opening up the Chemistry book and getting back to what they were meant to be focusing on.

Harry did as well.

Graduation went smoothly. Hermione got top of their year for pretty much everything, and Cedric was a close second. Draco and Neville also got a few trophies, and Luna was top of Art, even if most people didn't understand  _quite_  what she was trying to say with her paintings. Harry was surprised to get runner up top in Physical Education and then also a certificate, along with Cedric, for being the 'best team players'. It sounded like a fluffy certificate, but Harry was happy with it, plus as he and Cedric got up to accept the award, there were loud cheers and shouts from the others in the lacrosse team, and some of them even stood up and waved their arms, so that was kind of nice.

Sirius was there. He had traveled out and stayed with Molly and Arthur last night before coming in, and Harry found him after the graduation ceremony had finished, and gave him a tight hug.

"Aw, you looked so smart up there, Harry," Molly fussed over him and the suit jacket he was wearing, straightening out the collar and then fingers going to his hair, flipping through the strands and tidying it up. "And Hermione, love," her cheeks were rosy as her smile stretched them as she reached past Harry and for Hermione, pulling her for a tight hug. "Congratulations on all the awards."

"Thanks, Molly," Hermione said, a little shyly as she glanced over at Ron. Their parents knew that they were dating, and especially when it came to Molly and Arthur, they were very happy about the situation, but both Ron and Hermione were a bit shy around their parents as they navigated their new romantic relationship.

" _Mum_ ," Ron complained as Molly's attention turned to her youngest son, showering his face with kisses and gripping his shoulders tightly. Arthur smiled at both Hermione and Harry, affection shining in his eyes, before he and Sirius took a step to the side, talking idly about the weather and ' _how fast the children grow up_ '. Hermione's father couldn't make it to the graduation, but her mother was there, and she came over after speaking with a few of the other parents that she knew, and hugged the trio, one at a time, before striking up conversation with Molly.

"You guys want to go out to the field?" Hermione asked, glancing around at the crowded hall, where pretty much their whole school was still gathered.

"Yeah," Harry agreed and they began winding their way out of the crowd of people. Hermione was leading the way, and Harry couldn't help but smile a few times as she turned heads with what she was wearing. Everyone was dressed in their best clothes, most of the girls in dresses, but people just weren't used to Hermione making pretty much any  _effort_  when it came to her looks. She didn't care about make up or doing her hair up every day, so today, with make up and dark red lipstick and her hair twisted in braids around her head with several soft strands falling against her cheeks and a black sleeveless, high necked dress that clung to her slim figure and ended a few inches down her thighs. She looked  _beautiful_ , and Harry had told her so that morning.

Ron had as well, although it took a lot of stuttering to get it out.

It was almost seven thirty in the evening, but it was still light outside, since they were in summer now and the days were longer, and Harry loosened his tie and tugged his button down shirt out of his pants so that the breeze could travel over his torso unhindered. They saw some of their class mates and some parents and teachers walking around, people dispersing from the main hall, but no one rushing to go anywhere. It was Friday, and some people had already finished their exams—like Ron, so some were leaving today,  _permanently_ , from the school.

It was such a weird feeling.

Some of these people he would never, ever see again.

"Can you believe we're almost done?" Hermione spoke up as they reached the field, walking slowly over to one of the picnic tables—a picnic table that they had sat at  _so many times_  over the years.

"Bloody well feels like we only just started this year," Ron commented, straddling the bench on one side of the picnic table, looking back at the school through his fringe, which was growing longer and falling in front of his face.

"It's gone fast," Harry added with a heavy breath. There were a couple leaning against the walls of the library a couple of metres from them, completely wrapped up in each other, exchanging kisses and Harry wondered if they were hopeful kisses or goodbye kisses. A lot of high school romances didn't last, and Harry had heard a few of his classmates whispering loudly in the library that they were worried that their relationship wouldn't make the long distance strain as they went to separate colleges. Harry swallowed hard as he looked at Hermione and Ron—Hermione looking elegant and put together and Ron's eyes barely visible from behind his shaggy fringe, and he wondered if they would be one of the couples that made it.

Then he pushed the thought down, because of  _course_  they would.

"I wish that you had said yes to coming on the trip with us, Mione," Harry blurted out and Hermione blinked at him in surprise before her face softened in a small smile. "At least for the first part."

"You guys have been talking about doing this trip since  _forever_ ," Hermione pointed out. "I'm not going to be the girlfriend that intrudes on that." Harry opened his mouth to protest when she continued. "Besides, you know that I've already got a job lined up with one of mums friends back home, so that I can get some savings away before school starts again after the holidays. And I want to get a jump start on any reading that my course required for the first term."

"I can't believe you're going back to school again—by  _choice_ ," Ron made a face. Harry rolled his eyes before fixing them back on Hermione.

"You know you're not  _just_  a girlfriend here, Mione," Harry nudged her side gently with his elbow. "It's the three of us against the world." Hermione blinked again, but this time, her eyes glowed, as though they had filled with tears, and she wrapped her arms around Harry, giving him a tight hug. Harry hugged her back, arms around her shoulders and her slim torso, holding her against him, and he met Ron's eyes when he looked up from her shoulder, and Ron gave him a gentle, understanding smile. After a while, Hermione let go and she let out a shaky breath.

"It's not like we're going to be separated forever," she began, trying to think things through logically, as she always did. "I mean, you might be going home tonight, Ron, but me and Harry are still here for another week. And then we're all going to be at Ron's place the night before you guys...Go," she faltered and wrinkled her nose before sighing. "We should probably head back, I don't want to leave mum in there by herself for too long."

"Alright," Ron got up and reached out for Hermione's hand, linking their fingers together. Hermione gripped her boyfriends hand tightly while reaching out for Harry, slipping her arm through his and he crooked his elbow to make it easier for her to hold. They started walking back toward the main hall, past the couple that was still making out and toward where most of the noise was coming from. They were crossing the courtyard when Hermione's body tensed between the two men. "You okay, Mione?" Ron asked, looking in the direction that her eyes were pointed, and out of habit, Harry did as well.

It was Draco—looking positively edible in the suit he was wearing, with a tailored long coat over top, even though it was warm. Harry had definitely stared at him a lot that evening, trying to be subtle, although probably being anything but, however it wasn't just Draco who was walking away from the hall and in their direction, although from the side rather than front on, obviously heading toward the parking lot behind the main office.

"I expected you to get top in Physics, Draco," the tall man with white-blonde hair was saying in an exasperated voice. "Or at least Biology—that's the easiest of the sciences!"

"Which is why so many other people were good at it as well," Draco replied, although there wasn't quite as much confidence behind the voice that there normally was. Harry couldn't help but slow down and watch as a beautiful but harried looking woman tried to speak, but was quickly quietened as the man spoke again.

"I'm not interested in your  _excuses_ , Draco," the voice was condescending and Harry hated the way Draco's shoulders hunched forward a little, not standing as tall as he usually would. They were about to intersect, their paths about to meet, and that was when Draco looked up and saw Harry and his two best friends. His eyes flicked to his father and then back to Harry, and Hermione's grip was so tight on his arm he was pretty sure he would be protesting if he wasn't so completely focused on Draco at the moment. Draco's father didn't look at all interested in the three teenagers and he kept walking right by them, but Draco slowed down and purposefully jutted his chin forward.

"Mum," Draco said, and Narcissa Malfoy glanced at him. "I want you to meet Harry, Harry Potter." Her eyes widened in surprise, but then her lips curved in a small smile as she looked at Harry, giving him a quick once over before reaching out her hand. Harry took it in surprise and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you, Harry," Narcissa said, and although her smile was small, it was genuine. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Good things, I hope," Harry said nervously, attempting a smile as well.

"Of course," Narcissa's smile relaxed a little more and Draco had stopped chewing nervously on his lower lip when Lucius Malfoy cut in.

"Yes, such as you cannot pass Chemistry without any assistance," he stated coolly and the smile on Harry's face dropped. Draco's eyes narrowed and Narcissa sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"We should be going," Narcissa stated, clearly trying to stop things from becoming too unpleasant. "Good luck with the rest of your exams, Harry," she gave him a nod before moving to stand beside her husband and usher him on. Lucius eyes were cold on Harry, and even though they were the same colour as Draco's, that was where the similarities swiftly ended. Harry forced his eyes away from Lucius and fixed on Draco, who had his hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket.

"Have you got any more exams left?" Harry asked quietly, very aware of everyone's eyes on them, Narcissa's attempts to lead Lucius away not working.

"Just one, so I'll be leaving next Thursday," Draco replied, his voice taut although he was forcing himself to just look at Harry and not away to his parents, or more specifically, his father. "What about you?"

"Last one is Friday, for both me and Mione," Harry answered, glancing to his side and he saw Hermione with a strangely big smile on her face. He raised an eyebrow before looking back at Draco.

"Well, I might see you around before then?" Maybe it was just meant to just be a comment, but it sounded more like a question, and Harry couldn't help but nod in response. "Alright, well..." Draco pursed his lips together for a moment, eyes moving to rest on Hermione and Ron. "Goodnight—and good luck with your exams next week." Draco was already moving to his parents, and the three of them walking away, before Harry could say anything in response. He dragged in a deep breath through his teeth and looked at his two friends, who were staring back at him, Hermione still with that weird smile on her face.

"What?" He asked.

"I know that I'm nowhere near Draco's biggest fan," Hermione began. "But he just introduced you to his mum—right in front of his dad—even after everything. That's a big deal."

"You just met his parents, Harry," Ron smirked. "Isn't that the third or fourth milestone in a relationship?" Harry rolled his eyes.

"I just mean that...Well, do you still like him, Harry?" Hermione asked gently. Harry swallowed hard, because even though he and Draco were studying together, that was where things had carefully always ended, and they were always in the library or the study hall, in public, and there hadn't been any teasing or suggestive looks like there used to be. Everything was strictly platonic, and yet...

"Maybe," Harry admitted quietly, looking over to where the Malfoy family had disappeared past the main office. He inhaled heavily through his nose, straightening his shoulders before looking back at his two friends. "Yes."

"Are you going to tell him?" Hermione asked, tipping her head to the side, curly hair falling forward around her face.

"What's the point?" Harry asked with a wrinkle of his nose. "School is over, and it's not like we have a life where we're still going to seeing each other. Our families have nothing to do with one another, we live completely separate lives—there's just no point."

"You might feel better if you tell him? At least you would know that there was nothing left unsaid?" Hermione prompted. Harry just shrugged. Ron looked uncomfortable, which was normal when it came to discussing anyones love life, because he was terrible at that sort of thing. Thankfully, they dropped the subject and went back to the main hall where their parents—and godfather—were waiting. They said goodbye to Ron, since he was heading back tonight, and it was close to eleven before their families finally left and Hermione and Harry walked back to the dorms together. He had his arm around her and Hermione was resting her head on his shoulder as they got to her room on the first floor. "I really wish you'd tell Draco," she said quietly as she yawned and rubbed her hand over her face.

"I told you, Mione," Harry answered. "There's no point." Hermione sighed as she straightened up and turned to his face him, her back to her door. "And why are you pushing it? I thought you were completely  _against_  anything happening between me and Draco." Hermione made a face, wrinkling her nose.

"I know..." she murmured before rubbing her face again, clearly tired. "But after him apologizing to you and explaining what happened...Like I've said, I don't agree with his method, but I understand what he did. And..." she made another face. "Last year, when you were doing  _whatever_  it was with him, you were really happy, and even when you said that you've moved on and you were hanging out with Cedric, you weren't as happy as you were when you were with him."

"Even if I  _did_  tell him, it doesn't mean anything would happen—I don't even know if  _he_  likes  _me_ ," Harry protested.

"But you're never gonna know unless you _tell him_ ," Hermione pointed out. Harry really didn't have the energy for this right now—or maybe it was just that he didn't want to discuss it at all because he had made up his mind, but if Hermione kept on pushing at it, he might doubt his decision. "Anyway, I'm going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow—we'll go and get breakfast in town?" Harry nodded and leaned in to give her a kiss on her cheek before watching as she went inside. He looked at her closed door for a few more beats before walking upstairs.

The dorm room felt weird and empty without Ron's mess on his side of the room. Harry had packed a lot of his own stuff up as well and Sirius was taking it back tonight, so he just had a few bags of things that he was going to need to take home himself. Harry undressed, pushing back his blankets and top sheet and getting in in just his dark coloured briefs.

There was a lot that he had to think about when it came to Draco, but he honestly believed everything that he had told Hermione and Ron. It wasn't that he was scared to tell Draco how he felt; it was that there was _no point_. There was no point in him getting his hopes up and thinking that maybe that had a chance when their lives were going in completely separate directions without much probability of intersecting again, and so  _what was the point_?

However.

He had looked incredible in his suit tonight, with the dark wool coat that was probably too warm for this weather but had still looked amazing on him. His hair was longer than it used to be, and usually he just let it fall over his forehead, not brushing and slicking it back like he used to do when they had first started at Hogwarts, but it had been brushed and parted today. Not gelled, thankfully, because that had never been a great look, but brushed and parted and it looked amazing.

Harry's hand moved to brush against the smattering of hairs on his lower stomach as his mind began twisting the short encounter with the blonde into something else. It was a mixture of a fantasy and a memory. He imagined them here in his room, with Draco in the outfit that he was wearing tonight.

Things melded together from Harry undressing him in the clothes that he was wearing tonight and back to the times that they had actually spent in his room, like the first time they were together. Everything was messy and slowly and a bit awkward. Harry had had a sex with two guys before, one of them he had been on top and the other time it had been versatile, which he had enjoyed a lot. They hadn't had a lot of discussions over who was on top and who was on bottom, and they hadn't even talked about how far they were  _going_ , and so it had been a little uncomfortable for everyone involved.

But after the awkwardness, it had gotten better.

A  _lot_  better, actually.

They hadn't had sex to begin with, not all the way anyway, but Harry could argue that it was actually better. They sat down on Harry's narrow dorm bed, taking turns to take off items of clothing and then move back in to kiss one another. The kisses had been hesitant, even though there had been a lot of kissing beforehand, and some very forward sexts that both of them knew  _weren't_  going to happen their first time actually alone together, but they had relaxed a lot more once they were completely undressed and laying next to each other.

And then there was their last time together, when they were a whole lot more comfortable with each other—apparently to the point where Draco was ready to make something between them  _official_  even though no-one knew about them. They were both a little drunk as well, actually, because a bunch of the seniors had caught a train to a nearby town that they didn't usually frequent, with fake ID's one weekend—and Ron was away, so Harry had the dorm to himself. There had been laughter and an ease that only came with time and familiarity, which had happened over the months that they had spent together. Harry had sunk inside Draco and it had been the most amazing feeling in the entire world—it had just got better and better every time it happened—and Draco's lips were loose and tasted like beer and the hot chips that they had ordered before catching the train back. Draco had scratched at his back and pulled his hair and there had been a hickey left on Harry's neck that had forced him to get Hermione's help to cover up for the next few days.

Harry hissed at the feeling of his hand tighten around his cock. Pretty much everything was packed away, and that included all of his  _provisions_  in desk that was in between the two single beds. The skin on the palm of his hand was a little rough, toughened from the years playing lacrosse and lifting weights in the school gym with Ron on a semi-regular basis, but the drag wasn't unpleasant. His eyes fluttered shut as the memories and the fantasies washed over him and he let out a low moan as he felt his arousal twisting around his thighs and stretching toward his core. He could feel the heat spreading, his toes curling as his hand twisted and his fingers pressed under the crown of his cock. His eyes squeezed shut as he felt his orgasm snapped inside of him and his warmth spilled over his fingers.

" _Draco_..." he breathed out, blinking his eyes open and staring up at his ceiling as he rode out his high.

The last few days past quickly, Hermione and Harry spending almost their whole time studying for their final exams coming up. Hermione was studying a lot harder than Harry, because that's just how she was, but Harry was preparing to get out of there as quickly as he could. He was packing up the last of his things so that he could leave as soon as his exam finished when his door was suddenly knocked all the way open. Harry looked up, expecting it to be Hermione or Neville standing there.

But it wasn't.

It was Draco.

"Hey?" Harry lifted an eyebrow in confusion.

"Hey," Draco stated, but it came out heavy, as though he had been holding his breath and it just all came out together, in the form of one, tense word. "I just had my last exam and I'm about to get a car home." Harry felt as though there was a heavy stone in the pit of his stomach at that comment.

This was it.

Draco was leaving.

And tomorrow, Harry was leaving.

This was  _it_.

"Oh...Right," was all Harry managed to get out, even though there was so much that he wanted to say. Draco looked as though he was hoping that there something more as well, but he still firmly squared his shoulders and his eyes dropped to Harry's mouth.

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry—again. I don't know if I can say sorry enough to make up for totally freezing you out and making it seem like you had done something wrong," Draco stated. "And I also wanted to say...I wanted to say that there hasn't been anyone else since you. I know that we were never officially a thing, but I still...I haven't been interested in anyone since you." Harry blinked, his mouth feeling suddenly dry, his tongue heavy in his mouth. "You don't have to say anything back," Draco hurried on. "I don't expect you to say  _anything_  back, I just needed to tell you anyway." Harry's limbs all felt heavy, like they were weighing him down and his brain felt sluggish as he searched for something to say. "Well...That was it," the blonde swallowed awkwardly and took a step back, his expression tight, especially at the corners of his mouth. "I'll...Bye, Harry."

Harry's body suddenly flew into action, moving forward to close the gap between them and his hands gripping Draco's jacket, holding the lapels tightly as he brought his lips together with Draco's. Draco's mouth responded instantly, his hands resting on Harry's hips, fingers curling inwards and pressing through the thin tee-shirt that he was wearing. Draco's lips against Harry's felt incredible, it was the best feeling in the world, as though everything was finally coming back together. Their lips moved in sync, heads tipping to the side as Draco's mouth opened and Harry's tongue pushed inside to taste him. He tasted just like he used to, almost exactly the same, like lavender chewing gum and lemonade and  _Draco_ , and Harry's whole body shuddered as Draco's tongue twined together with his. The dark haired boy could barely keep his hips from grinding forward, seeking out the sweet friction that was only a few inches away, but he forced himself not to, not to get  _too_  swept up.

Draco's hands were moving, sliding from Harry's hips towards his back, pressing against his lower back, bringing him in closer until their hips lined up, which Harry had tried  _not_  to do, because as soon as their hips were together and their torso's were pressed against one another, he felt another shiver run through him, from his fingertips to his toes, and he couldn't stop the moan he let out, filling Draco's throat with the sound. Draco kissed back firmly and it was his turn to let out a little sound as Harry's fingers gripped his jacket harder, one hand moving to cup the back of Draco's neck and hold them together.

They only broke apart when they needed to breathe, and even then, it was only their lips that parted. Their foreheads were pressed together and their noses bumped gently when Draco shifted his head slowly from side to side, the tip of his nose tracing up the side of Harry's nose, the tender movement making Harry's heart skip a beat. His eyes closed and he took in a deep breath in, his chest expanding and then he exhaled slow, not wanting to open his eyes and break the moment. When he finally opened them, Draco was staring at him with calm, grey eyes, his eyelashes thick and looking a little damp, as though his eyes had been filled with tears. Harry had a hundred questions that he wanted to ask, but none of them felt right in this moment.

"Thank you, Harry," Draco breathed out, before pulling back far enough so that he could give Harry a soft kiss on his forehead and then he was turning and walking away. Harry was still processing everything that had happened, and by the time his eyes were no longer glazed over, Draco was long gone, and Harry was alone in his dorm room.

His last exam was over and done with by twelve o'clock and then he was back in his room finishing off the rest of his packing, which was pretty much just what he had slept in last night. The last exam hadn't been hard, nothing like the Chemistry test, which he had mixed feelings about.

But there was no point in worrying about any of them now, they were all over, and the results wouldn't be released for another month.

And by then, he would be nearly on his way to Italy with his best friend.

"I'll see you on Wednesday," Hermione said as she gave him a tight hug at the train station, her fingers practically turning into claws as she gripped him hard. "You make sure you pack everything on that list we made!" She insisted against his shoulder, although her voice sounded choked up from tears, even though she was trying to hide it.

"I will, Mione," Harry promised her as he pulled back. "If I don't, I know that you and Molly are just going to call me and scream at me down the phone—Ron too." Hermione let out a wet sounding laugh and nodded, looking down at her feet. Harry took in a deep breath as he crooked his finger underneath Hermione's cheek and brought her face up to look at his. "We're still going to be in touch—you're the one who said it wasn't going to be forever."

"Well, it feels like it," Hermione grumbled, trying to look away from Harry but unable to hold back her giggle when his fingers tightened on her chin.

"I love you, Mione," Harry told her sincerely and she sniffed.

"I love you too, Harry," Hermione said, throwing her arms around him to give him another tight hug. When they pulled apart and Harry leaned down to pick up his things, he noticed Cedric and Cho a few feet away from them, having a similar, tearful goodbye, although there were a lot more kisses involved in their goodbye. He was glad that they had worked out, and he hoped that they would be able to make their relationship work, whatever it was that both of them had planned. Cedric caught his eye as he straightened up, and he gave Harry a wide smile and a wave, and Cho followed his gaze and smiled at Harry as well when she saw him looking. Harry waved back at both of them before leaning forward to give Hermione a kiss on the cheek and then getting on the train, pulling all of his things in after him.

The time between getting on the train, and then arriving at the Weasley household with Sirius on Wednesday evening felt as though no time at all had passed.

Hermione was there, and most of the Weasley siblings were as well, other than the eldest two, and the whole house was filled with life and laughter, like it always was when most of the family was home.

Harry had always loved the Weasley household.

He couldn't imagine actually living there full time, because he also loved the quiet and the peace that came from being in his home with just Sirius, but he always loved coming here.

Molly made enough food to feed an army, and everyone crowded around the table. There were enough seats for everyone, although there wasn't exactly enough space, and so Hermione and Ron ended up sharing a plate and Harry was squished up against Ginny, which was fine, because they got along well. Sirius was beside Arthur at the head of the table, Molly on her husbands other side, and they attempted to keep the conversation volume low, but they gave up after ten minutes or so.

"You nervous?" Ginny asked from beside Harry, nudging his side with her elbow.

"About what?" Harry asked after he swallowed a mouthful of salad.

"Your trip," Ginny stated and Harry thought that was where it ended but then she continued. "And about being away from Draco." Harry had just scooped up another forkful of salad and steak and put it in his mouth and then took in a sharp breath at Ginny's comment, the food going to the back of his throat. He started coughing and dropped his knife and fork as he hit his throat, and George raised an eyebrow next to him and then lifted a hand and slammed a fist against Harry's back.

Harry spat out his food on the table with a spluttering cough.

"Thanks," Harry managed to say and George just gave him a grin filled with mashed potato and then went back to his dinner. Harry coughed a few more times to clear out his throat and he met Ron's questioning look but just shook his head until attention had shifted back away from him around the table. He tried to be subtle in the way that he dropped his voice and spoke to Ginny quietly. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm pretty sure it meant exactly what I said," Ginny mock-whispered back, although she obviously thought the whole thing was a joke, because she was grinning and didn't look as though she cared that other people heard. Harry blinked and looked down at his food, wondering if Ron had said something to Ginny, but that wouldn't sound right, Ron didn't really discuss his  _own_  personal things, muchless others.

"Who told you?" Harry asked, still keeping his voice hushed. Ginny made a face at him, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"Why are you acting as though this is something to keep a secret?" She asked. "This is family, we're not going to judge you, even if it is a  _Malfoy_." Harry gave her a hard look and Ginny rolled her eyes. " _Fine_. Neville saw you guys making out in your room the other week." Harry sighed, but he guessed at the end of the day, it didn't matter. It wasn't as though he had to worry about running into his former classmates every day anymore, and it seemed like it wasn't something Draco wanted to keep a secret anymore.

"To answer your question," Harry shoved his knife through his steak probably a bit harder than he needed to. "I'm going to be fine—being away from Malfoy." Ginny just shrugged and went back to her dinner. Harry stared at her for a few more beats before looking back at his dinner, although he didn't feel like eating anything else.

He hated that it didn't matter.

Thinking to himself that it didn't matter, the fact that people knew about him and Draco, made it feel as though that chapter of his life was over.

At one point, he had wanted it to  _not_  matter but for a different reason. He had wanted it to be because Draco was ready to go public with his sexuality and he had wanted to go public with  _Harry_. But that's not why it didn't matter now.

It didn't matter because they weren't in school anymore, they weren't bound to run into each other anymore, they weren't just a couple of  _teenagers_  anymore—they were adults.

"You alright, Harry?" Sirius asked after they had finished dinner and washing up, and the two of them were standing out on the rickety deck around the Weasley's house. "You seemed a bit off at dinner." Harry pursed his lips together, not sure what to say. "Is it just nerves about the flight tomorrow? Or..." he dragged out the word, raising an eyebrow and turning to face the younger man. "Has it got something to do with that Draco boy?" Harry made a clicking noise with his tongue.

"I guess," Harry sighed. Sirius nodded slowly and then lifted a hand, resting it on Harry's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"I don't really know what to say here," he said softly. "But maybe right now isn't the time to be thinking about him." Harry sighed again. "You're about to go away on the trip of a life time with one of your best friends. It's going to change your perspective and you're going to see things that you never thought you would and shouldn't be worried or holding yourself because of anything back here." He squeezed Harry's shoulder again. "I want you to have the best time and with everything back here, with Draco, once you come back and you're settled and you know what you want to do with your life, then that's when you can revisit him again." Harry knew that his uncle was right, but that didn't stop the twisting feeling in the pit of his stomach. "You never know," Sirius shrugged. "Maybe you'll meet someone while you're away," his lips curved in a small smile. "Or maybe you and Draco will reconnect later on and it'll be the right time for both of you. Who knows?" He shrugged. "But right now, I just want you to thinking about what's right in front of you, just enjoy the moment."

"I know," Harry murmured. Sirius smiled at him, giving him a hug before heading back into the bustling household.

Sirius was right.

He had been looking forward to this trip with Ron for  _years_ , ever since they had first started talking about it when they were fourteen. Back then, they had only planned to fly to one or two places, travel over the summer. Over the years, it had grown into so much more, and they had worked through their summers and winter breaks and saved as much as they could to make sure they could have this amazing trip that they were always expanding on.

Molly cried at the airport when saying goodbye to Ron and Harry, and gave them too many hugs and kisses to count. That wasn't surprising at all, and Sirius was grinning and shaking his head as she blew her nose into a tissue for the umpteenth time.

Hermione cried as well, though, and that  _was_  surprising. She hugged them both individually, and then all three of them were a mess of arms and kisses on cheeks, and then it looked as though she wasn't going to detach from Ron's mouth even though his face was bright red from all the public displays in front of his family.

"You give me a call if you ever need anything, okay?" Sirius said as Harry and Ron were about to walk through to security, leaving their family and friends behind.

"I will," Harry nodded as he hugged his uncle tightly.

"Even if you just need to call and talk about that Draco boy," he added softly and Harry couldn't help his smile as he hugged his uncle tighter. There were times when he really missed his parents and he wished that they were there with him, but the thing was, he barely had any memories of his parents, given they had died when he was so young, and he really couldn't imagine Sirius not being his guardian, his godfather. He called Sirius his uncle, but in all honesty, he was so much closer than that, he was like his father, and Harry was so grateful to have that.

"Thanks," Harry said into his shoulder and Sirius nodded, giving his shoulders a squeeze before they pulled apart. Molly gave both boys one last hug before they left, Arthur giving them a wink and Hermione looked as though she was going to start crying all over again, but then Harry and Ron were backing away and waving at them, gripping their backpacks and duffel bags tightly.

Once on the plane, Harry's stomach twisted in excitement and he looked across at Ron, who had a similar expression on his face, and they both grinned at each other.

The first night in Paris was pretty much just spent eating. They found a backpackers that barely cost anything since they were sharing a room with five other people, secured their bags away in a locker and then set about looking through the city. It felt different from being there with their families because there was no real purpose for them, they weren't on any type of schedule, they could just explore and stop wherever they felt like it. They ended up down a whole lot of side streets with food stores lining either side, and Harry was pretty sure that he ate more bread and cheese in that one evening than he had in his entire life.

"Bloody hell," Ron sighed out as they found a place to sit for dinner. "I feel like if this is the way our trip is going to go, we're going to be spending a lot more money on clothes."

"We could just constantly wear sweatpants with elastic," Harry supplied and Ron let out a laugh. They skimmed their eyes over the menu, Ron deciding to stick with what he knew and get steak and a salad while Harry ordered duck. After eating, they kept on walking, taking photos on their phones, sending a couple on snapchat to their friends before carrying on. They found a bar and weren't asked for ID as they ordered beers at the counter.

The pair didn't get back to their backpackers until the early hours of the morning, both a bit drunk since they had switched up from beer to something a bit harder, and they tripped over their feet and some of the luggage that was left lying around from other people that they were sharing their room with. Harry woke up first the next morning, Ron was still fast asleep and snoring on the bunk bed above him, and so he brought their tickets online for the Paris Catacombs. A lot of the places they wanted to go and things that they wanted to see were free, but there were a couple of spots that were going to cost some money. Ron and Harry had both said that they would pay for their own things along the way, but Ron had been right when he said that Harry had a better financial situation than him, a cushy bank account left by his parents. So he didn't mind splashing out a bit, even though they had both worked had to save their own money independent of their parents.

Through their tour of the catacombs, they both got a couple an envious messages from Hermione, since she had gone through them when she was younger and couldn't properly appreciate them, but would definitely be able to now. She had just started her new job, one that her mother had gotten her, helping out at an accounting firm, sorting through books and answering phones.

It was definitely a different pace from what the boys were doing.

After the catacombs, they did more walking and took the tram to visit some further places. They saw a sculpture of a man stuck in a wall, or _Le Passe-Muraille,_  and looked up the story by Marcel Aymé on their phones, and then kept on exploring. There were more beers, and then macaroons and eclairs and crepes, and then Coq Au Vin for dinner. They didn't stay out late that night since they were leaving early in the morning toward the Loire Valley on a bus that was leaving just after eight, although they did find another dainty little bar on the way home where they ordered some expensive wine on the menu.

Ron didn't finish his, and made Harry promise not to tell Hermione because he had to pretend he had at least  _some_  class, and Harry laughed and finished off his own and then Ron's as well.

Then he told Ron that he was pretty sure that Hermione wasn't with him because of his 'class'.

Molly called them that night, when they were on their way back to backpackers. She spoke almost the whole time, filling them on everything that was happening at home, which was all of the standard things. She also told them that she had been in contact with Charles, who was away from his home at the moment but would be back well in time to meet them once they arrived. She then passed the phone around, Arthur not having much to say since he was tired and had just gotten home from work, and then Fred and George jumped on and Harry could barely understand everything they were saying, given they kept talking over each other and Ron had the phone mostly turned toward his own ear. Then it was Ginny's turn, and she was a lot easier to hear, it seemed as though she had gone to a different room where it was quieter.

"Let me talk to Harry," Ginny requested her brother.

"Oh, I see how it is," Ron laughed as he and Harry stepped to the side of the footpath to let a group of people pass by them before they continued walking. Ron took his phone away from his ear and held it out to Harry.

"Hey, Ginny," Harry greeted her, making a face as he was jolted by a determined looking older woman with her arms filled with shopping bags.

"I saw Luna and Neville today," Ginny said by way of greeting, getting right to the point.

"Okay?" Harry frowned at Ron as he looked over at him questioningly.

"Luna said that Draco mentioned you," she continued and the light-hearted feel of the conversation stopped almost immediately. Sometimes Harry forgot that Luna and Draco were related, even though it was distantly. Luna was so sweet and a little absent-minded, while Draco was so grounded and could be a little manipulative if the situation called for it. Harry pressed his lips together as he waited for her to carry on. "He asked Luna if she had seen you since you left Hogwarts, or if she knew if you had already left for your trip."

"What did she say?" Harry asked.

"The truth. She hadn't seen you, but she had heard that you and Ron had flown out," Ginny replied. "Just thought that you would want to know that he had been asking about you." Harry didn't know what to reply, then he heard Molly's voice getting closer and closer. "Anyway, gotta go. Mum wants to talk to you guys again." Ron moved so that he was standing closer to Harry and Harry tipped the phone to the side so that they could both hear. Molly was telling them things she had already said a hundred times before—to be safe, to keep their belongings close, to make sure their money and their passports and their visas were in a secure place at all times, to call if they were ever in any trouble, to make sure they were washing behind their ears.

Harry laughed once they had finally hung up, mainly at Ron's face, which looked as though he'd just stepped in something rotten.

"She acts like we're still bloody ten!" He protested. Harry just clapped his hand down on his friends shoulder before going into their accommodation. They showered in the tiny, communal bathroom and got into the bunk beds, and it sounded as though Ron went to sleep immediately, based on his snoring.

Harry stayed up a lot longer, staring at the springs and the fraying mattress of the bunk bed above him, his mind on Draco, who had suddenly been thrust to the front of his thoughts again.

The next morning, they were showered and out of the backpackers before seven thirty, heading toward the bus station where they were taking a tour bus through the Loire Valley. There had originally been a plan to rent a car and go by themselves, and take a few days exploring, but the tour bus was cheaper and covered a lot of the places that they were planning on going anyway. It also was only a day trip, which was probably for the best, since they had lots of things they wanted to do in Spain. It saved on the driving, and it meant they could drink without worrying about who was going to be driving when they visited the vineyards. The vineyards were more something they were doing just because they were tourist spots, they were more interested in seeing the castle estates and the general scenery.

Hermione and Molly had acted as though they had mortally wounded them when they had said that, since they would have loved to go about the vineyards.

The boys took a lot of photos, and snuck off in one of the tours around a castle to explore by themselves, and the look they got from the older woman who was acting as the tour guide was very similar to the one that Professor McGonngall used to give them when they were in school.

Provence was beautiful, and the boys actually spent most of their time just beach hopping. They knew that there were a lot of places that were tourist spots for them to go to, but it was just nice being at beaches that weren't all rocks and barely any sand. Ron's shoulders were so red they actually looked like they were glowing after the first day at the beach, and Harry had thought about buying some elastic bands for his hair, which was now getting longer, because it kept getting in his face when they were in the water. They were only in Provence for six days, and given they spent most of it in the water or sleeping on the beach under the sun, they wished that they had organised to stay for longer so that they could do more.

Although Ron had a good point, when he said that if they had just organised to stay longer, they would have just spent  _more_  time in the water and  _more_  time sleeping on the beach under the sun.

He wasn't wrong.

It was Portugal and then Madrid next, and it felt as though there wasn't enough time to spend exploring as they wanted to. They knew that there was going to be times when it felt like that, but there was just something especially about Portugal that pulled at both of them. There was a city, Porto, where the night life was incredible. They bounced from club to club, and the only reason that they didn't lose each other a hundred times over is because they had their Find My Friends app turned on on their phones. There was a lot of alcohol and a couple of joints involved—Harry was offered some pink and blue pills from a girl with streamers tangled in her hair, but he chose not to take them. They were out until five in the morning several nights in the a row, sleeping in until early afternoon and then fitting their sight seeing in before repeating the cycle all over again. Ron even danced for a few hours each of those nights, although he was still so stiff and nothing could give him rhythm. It made Harry laugh watching his friend standing there, next to a couple of girls who looked as though they were actually professional dancers, showing him up. There were a few groups of people who were also tourists that they joined up with, and it felt good to be conversing with people other than just Harry, or just Ron.

By the third night in a row of this, when they were Skyping with Sirius and Hermione, they both looked utterly dead.

Sirius found it hilarious.

Hermione looked concerned, almost as though she was their mother.

They took the next night off drinking and then they were off to Madrid for the next week. Harry had to get in contact with Bellatrix, Sirius' distant cousin, just to confirm that they were coming over and when their flight landed and when they planned to get to her place. He wasn't sure if he should send a text or call, so he settled on a text and then she ended up calling him back nearly twelve hours later, and it was a whirlwind of a conversation where she talked so quickly he could barely keep up but he was able to make out that she was going to pick them up from the airport, that they were welcome to stay for as long as they wanted, and that her nephew was visiting.

Ron laughed when Harry got off the phone, because he was able to hear the babbling from the eccentric woman from where he was sitting across the table from his friend.

They flew into Italy nearly two weeks later, and Harry pushed his sunglasses up his nose as they stepped out of the airport. Based on their conversation Harry had thought that Bellatrix was going to be in the airport, but Ron and Harry had walked around for a bit and couldn't find her. So in the end, they walked out into the heat, squinting at the heavy traffic.

"You think we should grab a cab?" Ron asked as they looked toward the cars in the pick up section, even though they had no idea what car they were looking for.

"Uh," Harry dug his phone out of his pocket and looked down at it, wondering if he should try calling her before they hailed a cab, and then he heard his name being yelled out.

Or, more correctly, screeched.

"Harry! Little Harry! Over here, baby!" Harry's eyebrows pulled together as he looked around, Ron looking a little terrified, looked around as well. "Harry! And ginger boy! Over here!"

"Is that...A hearse?" Ron sounded in awe as they spotted a sleek black car— _hearse_ —stopping traffic completely since there was nowhere for it to actually pull into the pick up area.

"Yeah," Harry was hesitant as they stepped slowly up to the curb. "Yeah, it is." Ron grinned as she leaned across to the passenger side and pushed open the door, waving her arm at them.

"Get in! We're holding up traffic here!" Bellatrix called out to them before throwing a glare over her shoulder and pulling the fingers at the person who was tooting their horn behind her. The two boys exchanged looks and then quickly crossed the road to where the hearse was idling, Harry getting in the passenger seat while Ron got in the back. "Excellent—hold on!" And then she was accelerating a whole lot faster than she probably should in such a bustling area, Harry and Ron struggling to find their seat belts and get them on while juggling their oversized rucksacks. "I got completely caught up back at home!" Bellatrix said, waving a hand at them and flashing a large smile, her brightly painted purple lips stretching across her cheeks. "My nephew showed up a few days ago and then he wanted to get a job, and the boy has never worked a day in his life, but he was determined!" Her words were all running together, her black hair streaked in grey flying around her face as they pulled onto the main road and their speed increased. "So we found him a job with a friend of mine—and Siri said that you guys wanted jobs as well, right? We can always get you a job there as well—he's doing his place up, not too fussed about how quick it's done so he's just got a couple of people working there on and off, you'll fit right in! Now, dinner tonight..."

Harry couldn't help but glance over his shoulder to look back at Ron, who was grinning at Bellatrix's subject hopping and how quick she was talking, and Harry couldn't help but smile as well as he turned around and looked out his window at the scenery that they were speeding by.

The sun was beginning to set, casting beautiful oranges and reds across the sky, and Harry's smile settled from something amused to something softer as he watched the beautiful landscape. They moved away from the busier road and further into the country, and Harry kind of wished that his phone had a higher camera resolution to take some quick photos and send them back to Hermione, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't even be able to get  _close_  to the image justice. They turned onto a road that clearly wasn't up-kept very well, but that Bellatrix seemed to know like the back of her hand, twisting and turning the car to get around the bumps and potholes in the road.

Money seemed to run in the family, because once they drove up a long drive way that took them past rows and rows of grapevines that were climbing up their trellises, the driveway opened up to a large gravel area where another car was parked and the house was beautiful. It wasn't as big as some of the estates that they had past, but it was still quite large, probably just a little bigger than the Weasley house.

"This place is gorgeous," Harry said to Bellatrix and she smiled and did this strange wiggle thing with her shoulders before taking off her seat belt and getting out of her car. Ron and Harry got out after, Harry resting his rucksack on the ground so that he could properly stretch and look around. The sun was almost completely set now, so the sky was shifting in hues, dark blue and purple in the distance, fading to a lighter blue, and then reds and oranges. Harry took in a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes, only opening them when he heard Bellatrix calling out.

"Oh, darling! I was hoping you'd be back by the time we got here! This is Siri's boy!" She was walking toward the house, the high heeled boots she was wearing crunching on the gravel underneath her feet, and Harry was taking his time to turn around to look back toward the house, still looking at the fields around them, when Ron hit his arm.

"What?" Harry wrinkled his nose and looked down at where Ron had hit him, but Ron wasn't even looking at him, he was looking over his shoulder and toward the house, where Bellatrix was. She was walking toward someone with her arms extended, as though she was going to embrace them, and it wasn't until she threw her arms forward and the person hugged her back, that he saw who it was.

Draco.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think x


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